WOFFORD  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


SERMONS  AND  ADDRESSES. 


BY 


^7  JOHN  A.  BROADUS,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  /( 

PROFESSOR  IN  THE  SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY,  LOUISVILLE,  «rr~s. 


FIFTH    EDITION. 


: :  jflemtna  f>.  TRevell  : : 


NEW  YORK  : 
12  BIBLE  HOUSE,  A8TOR  PLACE. 


CHICAGO  : 
148  AND  150  MADISON  STREET 


=  publisher  of  Evangelical  literature 


OomioMT,  1886,  BT  H.  M.  WHAETOH  ft  Oo. 


Ji-    B.  KODOBKS  PBUCTIlfU  O».. 
52  »nd  M  N.  Sixth  Strwt, 
PlILAOILTBlA.  PA. 


TO  THE 

HON.  J.   L.   M.  CURRY,   LL.D., 

UNITED  STATES  MINISTER  TO  SPAIN. 

I  send  across  the  sea  a  slight  token  of  our  friendship.  You 
have  often  shown  that  a  man  of  the  highest  gifts  as  a  public 
speaker  may  give  to  less  favored  men  an  interested  and  sympathetic 
attention.  May  you  long  live  to  serve  your  generation  by  the  will 
of  God. 

With  cordial  affection, 

J.  A.  B. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR: 

A  TREATISE  ON  THE  PREPARATION  AND  DELIVERY  OF 
SERMONS.  New  York :  A.  C.  Armstrong  &  Son, 
714  Broadway. 

LECTURES  ox  THE  HISTORY  OP  PREACHINO.  New 
York  :  Sheldon  A  Co.,  724  Broadway. 

A  COMMENTARY  ON  MATTHEW.  Philadelphia  :  Ameri- 
can Baptist  Publication  Society,  1420  Chestnut  St. 


PREFACE. 


SOME  of  these  sermons  have  been  published  in  periodi- 
cals, or  printed  for  private  distribution ;  others  are  now  for 
the  first  time  in  print.  Nearly  all  were  taken  down  by 
stenographers,  whether  for  a  periodical  or  for  the  preacher. 
In  revising,  it  has  not  usually  seemed  best  to  remove  the 
colloquial  phrases,  and  the  occasional  breaks  in  construc- 
tion, which  naturally  mark  freely  spoken  discourse.  "Where 
necessary  in  order  to  account  for  illustrations  or  other 
allusions  in  a  sermon  or  address,  the  occasion  of  its  delivery 
has  been  stated  in  a  note.  Several  of  the  sermons  have 
been  preached  to  a  good  many  churches ;  and  persons  who 
remember  well  in  that  line  may  be  interested  in  noticing 
differences,  sometimes  numerous  and  considerable,  due  to 
altered  circumstances  or  the  preacher's  varying  moods. 
Some  of  the  addresses  are  quite  familiar  in  tone ;  others 
were  made  on  a  dignified  or  solemn  occasion. 

Everything  in  the  volume  that  is  not  of  quite  recent 
origin,  has  been  carefully  revised.  The  task  has  awakened 
a  thousand  precious  memories  of  those  among  whom  I 
have  gone  preaching  the  gospel.  I  pray  God's  blessing 
upon  them  all ;  and  his  blessing  upon  these  printed  dis- 
courses, that  they  may  do  some  good. 

V 


CONTENTS. 


i. 

WORSHIP.  , 

PI 

(At  the  dedication  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  in  St.  Louis.) 
God   Is  a  Spirit:  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and 


truth.— JOHN  iv.  24 


II. 

SOME  LAWS  OF  SPIRITUAL  WORK. 
One  soweth,  and  another  reapeth.    Others  have  labored,  and  ye  are  entered  into 

their  labor.— JOHN  iv.  34-38 26 

III. 

THE  HABIT  OF  THANKFULNESS. 
In  everything  give  thanks. — 1  THESS.  v.  18 15 

IV. 

ENCOURAGEMENT  TO  PRAY. 
Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  yon.— MATT.  vii.  7 57 

V. 

HE  EVER  LIVETH  TO  INTERCEDE. 

Wherefore  also  he  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  them  that  draw  near  unto  God 
through  him,  seeing  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them. — HEB. 
vii.  25 70 

VI. 

LET  US  HAVE  PEACE  WITH  GOD. 
Being  therefore  justified  by  faith,  let  us  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord 

Jesus  Christ.— ROM.  v.  1 85 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 


VII. 

FA  01 

HOW  THE  GOSPEL  MAKES  MEN  HOLY. 

0  wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  out  of  the  body  of  this  death  ? 

I  thank  God  through  Jesiu  Christ  our  Lord. — ROM.  vli.  24,  25 97 

VIII. 

INTENSE    CONCERN    FOR    THE    SALVATION    OF    OTHERS. 
For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren. — ROM. 

ix.  3  . .  .110 


IX. 

THE    MOTHER    OF    JESUS. 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus  — ACTS  i.  14 124 

X. 

THE  APOSTLE  PAUL  AS  A  PREACHER. 

(Preached  when  chaplain  to  the  Univertity  of  Virginia.) 

Unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  was  this  grace  given,  to 

preach  unto  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. — EPH.  iii.  8  .    139 

XI. 

THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES. 

And  that  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  holy  scriptures,  which  are  able  to 
make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. — 
2  TIM.  iii.  15 168 

XII. 
ON  READING  THE  BIBLE  BY   BOOKS. 

Address  before  the  International  Convention  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  1881 167 

XIII. 

MINISTERIAL  EDUCATION. 

(Sermon  before  the  Baptitt  Society  for  Ministerial  Education  in  Jffiuouri.) 
Give  diligence  to  present  thyself  approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth 

not  to  be  ashamed,  handling  aright  the  word  of  truth. — 2  TIM.  ii.  15    .   .    198 


CONTENTS.  IX 

XIV. 

PAGE. 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  IN   A.D.   1774. 

Address  at  the  opening1  of  a  session  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 

Seminary 216 

XV. 

COLLEGE  EDUCATION   FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS  .    .    .  248 

XVI. 

EDUCATION  IN  ATHENS. 
Address  before  the  Society  of  Alumni  of  the  University  of  Virginia    .     .  268 


SERMONS  AND  ADDRESSES. 


i. 

WOBSHIP* 

God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth. — John  iv.  24. 

TESUS  was  tired.  The  little  that  we  know  of  the 
tl  history  just  before,  yet  enables  us  to  see  cause  why 
He  should  have  been  tired. 

He  had  been,  for  long  months,  engaged  in  active 
efforts  to  save  men's  souls — to  lift  men  out  of  their 
sluggishness  and  worldliness  toward  God.  That  is  hard 
work  for  mind  and  heart.  And  he  had  been  at  work 
among  many  who  were  hostile.  The  disciples  of  John 
were  some  of  them  envious  that  their  master  was  de- 
creasing and  another  was  increasing,  though  John  said 
it  w#s  right  and  good ;  and  when  the  Pharisees  heard 
that  Jesus  was  now  making  and  baptizing  more  disci- 
ples than  John,  they  were  jealous.  They  made  it  need- 
ful that  he  should  withdraw  from  Judea,  as  so  often 
during  his  brief  ministry  he  had  to  withdraw  from  the 
jealousy  of  his  enemies  or  the  fanaticism  of  his  friends, 
and  seek  a  new  field.  Worn  out  and  perhaps  sad  at 
heart,  the  Redeemer  sat  alone  by  Jacob's  well. 

•  At  the  dedication  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  in  St.  Louis,  1879. 

1 


2  WORSHIP. 

Our  artists  owe  us  yet  two  companion  pictures, — the 
one  of  Jesus,  as  the  disciples  saw  him  when  they  turned 
back  to  look,  on  their  way  to  buy  food,  as  he  sat  and 
rested,  leaning  with  limbs  relaxed,  with  face  weary,  yet 
gentle ;  and  the  other  of  Jesus  as  they  found  him  when 
they  came  back,  sitting  up  now  with  an  animated  look 
on  his  face,  busily,  eagerly  talking. 

Ah !  there  was  an  opening  to  do  good,  and  he  who 
"went  about  doing  good"  would  give  up  even  his 
needed  rest,  and  often  did,  we  know,  to  do  good  to  the 
least  and  the  lowest.  The  disciples  wondered  not  that 
he  was  ready  to  do  good ;  they  had  seen  that  often  al- 
ready. They  wondered  that  he  was  talking  with  a 
woman,  for  that  was  contrary  to  the  dignity  of  a  man 
according  to  the  ideas  of  that  time  and  country, — to  be 
seen  talking  with  a  woman  in  public.  They  wondered ; 
they  knew  not  yet  what  manner  of  spirit  they  were 
of, — that  they  had  to  deal  with  high  saving  truths  that 
break  through  all  weak  conventionalities. 

They  would  have  wondered  more  if  they  had  known 
what  he  knew  full  well, — that  it  was  a  woman  of  bad 
character;  and  yet  he  saw  in  her  potencies  for  good, 
and  he  did  win  her  that  day  to  faith  in  the  Messiah 
who  had  come,  and  sent  her  forth  to  tell  others  to  come 
and  see  "a  man  who  had  told  her  all  things  whatsoever 
she  did." 

But  she  shrank  in  the  process.  Beautiful  and  won- 
derful it  is  to  see  how  admirably  our  Lord  led  the 
casual  conversation  with  a  stranger  so  as  to  introduce 
the  profoundest  spiritual  truths. 

My  Christian  friends,  let  me  not  fail  to  point  your 


WORSHIP.  3 

attention  to  this.  I  know  no  art  of  social  life  more 
needful  to  be  cultivated  in  our  time  and  country  than 
the  art  of  skilfully  introducing  religion  into  general 
conversation.  It  is  a  difficult  task.  It  requires  tact 
and  skill  to  do  this  in  such  a  way  as  to  accomplish 
much  good  and  no  harm ;  but  it  is  worth  all  your  ef- 
forts. Old  and  young,  men  and  women,  yea — shall  I 
say  it? — especially  young  ladies,  who  are  Christians, 
with  that  control  which  young  ladies  have  in  our  Amer- 
ican society,  need  to  cultivate  few  things  so  much  as 
just  that  power  which  the  Saviour  here  showed.  Oh  ! 
beautiful,  blessed  example  of  Jesus!  How  it  shines 
more  and  more  as  we  study  and  strive  to  imitate  it! 
And  not  only  did  he  lead  on  toward  religious  truth, 
but  he  knew  how,  in  a  quiet,  skilful  way,  to  awaken 
her  consciousness  to  a  realization  of  her  sinfulness,  so 
that  she  might  come  near  to  spiritual  truth.  She  shrank 
from  it,  I  said,  as  people  will  often  shrink  from  us 
when  we  try  to  bring  truth  home  to  their  souls.  She 
.shrank,  and  while  not  wishing  to  turn  the  conversation 
entirely  away  from  religious  things,  she  would  turn  it 
away  to  something  not  so  uncomfortably  close,  and  so 
ahe  asked  him  about  a  great  question  much  discussed. 

"  Sir,  I  perceive  that  thou  art  a  prophet.  Our  fathers 
did  worship  in  this  mountain,"  and  right  up  the  steep 
slopes  of  Mount  Gerizim  she  would  point  to  the  mount 
high  above  them,  where  were  the  ruins  of  the  old  tem- 
ple of  the  Samaritans,  destroyed  a  century  and  a  half 
before.  "  Our  fathers  worshipped  in  this  mountain  ;  and 
ye  say  that  in  Jerusalem  is  the  place  where  men  ought 
to  worship.  O  prophet,  which  is  it?"  Again  the 

JfOFFORD  COLLEGE  LIBRAE 


WORSHIP. 


Redeemer,  while  he  answers  her  question,  will  turn  it 
away  from  all  matters  of  form  and  outward  service,  and 
strike  deep  by  a  blow  into  the  spiritual  heart  of  things. 
"  Woman,  believe  me,  the  hour  is  coming,  when  neither 
in  this  mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem  shall  ye  worship  the 
Father."  He  will  not  fail  to  imply  in  passing  that 
Jerusalem  had  been  the  right  place.  "  Ye  worship  that 
which  ye  know  not.  We  worship  that  which  we  know, 
for  salvation  is  from  the  Jews  " — he  only  mentions  that 
in  passing — "  but  the  hour  cometh  and  now  is,  when 
the  true  worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit 

and  truth,  for  such  doth  the  Father  seek  to  be  his  wor- 

'  r 

shippers." 

Only  spiritual  worship  will  be  acceptable  to  God  ;  this 
is  what  he  seeks,  and,  more  than  that,  this  is  what  the 
very  nature  of  the  case  requires.  "  For  God  is  a  spirit, 
and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  him  in  spirit 
and  in  truth." 

I  wish  to  speak  of  the  worship  of  God,  and  I  shall 
ask  two  very  simple  questions  about  it,  and  try  to  some 
little  extent  to  answer  each  of  them. 

Why  should  we  worship  God  ?  How  should  we  wor- 
ship God  ?. 

I.  A  man  might  well  draw  back  and  fear  to  say  one 
word  as  to  reasons  why  we  should  worship  God.  Oh  ! 
how  high,  and  wide,  and  deep,  that  theme  !  And  yet  it 
may  be  useful  just  to  remind  you  of  some  things  in- 
cluded in  these  expressions.  Why  ought  we  to  worship 
God  ?  Because  it  is  due  to  him ;  and  because  it  is  good 
for  us. 

(1.)  That  we  should  render  to  God  worship  is  due 


WORSHIP.  A 

to  him.  My  dear  friends,  if  we  were  but  unconcerned 
spectators  of  the  glorious  God  and  his  wonderful 
works,  it  ought  to  draw  out  our  hearts  to  admiration 
and  adoration  and  loving  worship.  The  German  philoso- 
pher, Kant,  probably  the  greatest  philosopher  of  modern 
times,  said  :  "  There  are  two  things  that  always  awaken 
in  me,  when  I  contemplate  them,  the  sentiment  of  the 
sublime.  They  are  the  starry  heavens  and  the  moral 
nature  of  man."  Oh  !  God  made  them  both,  and  all 
there  is  of  the  sublime  in  either  or  in  both  is  but  a  dim, 
poor  reflection  of  the  glory  of  Him  who  made  them. 
Whatever  there  is  in  this  world  that  is  suited  to  lift  up 
men's  souls  at  all  ought  to  lift  them  towards  God. 

Robert  Hall  said  that  the  idea  of  God  subordinates  to 
itself  all  that  is  great,  borrows  splendor  from  all  that  is 
fair,  and  sits  enthroned  on  the  riches  of  the  universe. 
More  than  that  is  true.  I  repeat,  all  that  exalts  our 
souls  ought  to  lift  them  up  toward  God.  Especially 
ought  we  to  adore  the  holiness  of  God. 

O  sinful  human  beings,  still  you  know  that  holiness  is 
the  crown  of  existence.  There  is  not  a  human  heart 
that  does  not  somehow,  sometimes  love  goodness.  Find 
me  the  most  wicked  man  in  all  your  great  city,  and 
there  are  times  when  that  man  admires  goodness. 
Yea,  I  imagine  there  are  times  when  he  hopes  that 
somehow  or  other  he  may  yet  be  good  himself.  When 
a  man  we  love  has  died,  we  are  prone  to  exaggerate  in 
our  funeral  discourse,  in  our  inscriptions  on  tomb-stones 
and  the  like — to  exaggerate  what  ?  We  seldom  exagger- 
ate much  in  speaking  of  a  man's  talents,  or  learning,  or 
possessions,  or  influence,  but  we  are  always  ready  to  ex- 


6  WORSHIP. 

aggerate  his  goodness.  We  want  to  make  the  best  of 
the  man  in  that  solemn  hour.  We  feel  that  goodness  is 
the  great  thing,  for  a  human  being  when  he  has  gone  out 
of  our  view  into  the  world  unseen.  And  what  is  it  that 
the  Scriptures  teach  us  is  one  of  the  great  themes  of  the 
high  worship  of  God,  where  worship  is  perfect  ?  Long 
ago  a  prophet  saw  the  Lord  seated  high  on  a  throne  in 
the  temple,  with  flowing  robes  of  majesty,  and  on  either 
side  adoring  seraphs  did  bend  and  worship,  and  oh  ! 
what  was  it  that  was  the  theme  of  their  worship?  Was 
it  God's  power  ?  Was  it  God's  wisdom  ?  You  know 
what  they  said — "Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of 
hosts.  The  whole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory."  And 
there  do  come  times,  O  my  friends,  to  you  and  me, 
though  we  lift  not  holy  hands,  for  we  are  sinful,  though 
we  dwell  among  a  people  of  unclean  lips,  there  come 
times  to  you  and  me  when  we  want  to  adore  the  holiness 
of  God. 

And  then  think  of  his  love  and  mercy  !  If  you  were 
only  unconcerned  spectators  I  said — thuik  of  his  love 
and  mercy ! 

He  hates  sin.  We  know  not  how  to  hate  sin  as  the 
holy  God  must  hate  it.  And  yet  how  he  loves  the 
sinner !  How  he  yearns  over  the  sinful  !  How  he 
longs  to  save  him  !  Oh,  heaven  and  earth,  God  so  loved 
the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  will  have  it  so,  might  through  him  be  saved. 

I  know  where  that  great  provision,  that  mighty  mercy 
is  adored.  I  know  from  God's  word  that  those  high 
and  glorious  ones,  who  know  far  more  than  we  do  of  the 
glorious  attributes  of  the  Creator  and  the  wide  wonders 


WORSHIP.  7 

of  his  works,  when  they  have  sung  their  highest  song 
of  praise  for  God's  character  and  for  creation,  will  then 
strike  a  higher  note  as  they  sing  the  praises  of  redemp- 
tion, for  holiness  and  redemption  are  the  great  themes 
which  the  Scriptures  make  known  to  us  of  the  worship 
in  heaven.  John  saw  in  his  vision  how  the  four  living 
creatures,  representing  the  powers  of  nature,  and  the  four 
and  twenty  elders,  representing  the  saved  of  God,  bowed 
in  worship,  and  how  a  wide  and  encircling  host  of  angels 
caught  the  sound,  and  how  it  spread  wider  still,  till  in 
all  the  universe  it  rolls,  "  Salvation  and  honor  and  glory 
and  power  be  unto  him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  and 
unto  the  Lamb  forever  and  ever." 

Holiness  and  redemption  !  We  ought  to  adore  if  we 
had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  for  we  have  a  moral  nature 
to  appreciate  it.  And  oh !  are  we  unconcerned  spectators? 
That  most  wonderful  manifestation  of  God's  mercy  and 
love  has  been  made  towards  us.  And,  if  the  angels  find 
their  highest  theme  of  praise  in  what  the  gracious  God 
has  done  for  us,  how  ought  we  to  feel  about  it  ?  Yea, 
there  is  a  sense  in  which,  amid  the  infirmities  of  earth, 
we  can  pay  God  a  worship  that  the  angels  cannot  them- 
selves offer. 

"  Earth  has  a  joy  unknown  in  heaven  ; 
The  new-born  bliss  of  sins  forgiven." 

And  sinful  beings  here  may  strike,  out  of  grateful 
hearts  for  sins  forgiven,  a  note  of  praise  to  God  that 
shall  pierce  through  all  the  high  anthems  of  the  skies 
and  enter  into  the  ear  of  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts. 

(2.)  But  I  said  we  ought  to  worship  God,  not  only 


8  WORSHIP. 

because  it  is  due  to  Him,  but  because  it  is  good  for  us. 
Only  the  worship  of  God  can  satisfy,  O  my  friends,  the 
highest  and  noblest  aspirations  of  our  natures. 

When  anything  lifts  us  up,  then  we  want  God  as  the 
climax  of  our  exalted  thought,  and  our  thought  itself  is 
imperfect  without  it.  If  you  will  look,  as  I  looked  this 
morning,  in  the  early  light,  upon  the  glory  of  the 
autumn  woods,  faded  now,  yet  still  bright,  and  so 
beautiful ;  if  you  gaze  upon  the  splendor,  as  you  will  do 
when  this  service  is  ended,  of  the  nightly  skies ;  if  you 
stand  in  awe  before  the  great  mountains,  snow-clad  and 
towering,  before  Hermon,  before  the  wonderful  mount- 
ains of  our  own  wonderful  ^rest ;  if  you  go  and  gaze  in 
the  silence  of  night  upon  the  rush  of  your  own  imperial 
river,  or  stand  by  the  sea-shore,  and  hear  the  mighty 
waters  rolling  evermore,  there  swrells  in  the  breast  some- 
thing that  wants  God  for  its  crown  and  for  its  complete- 
ness. There  are  aspirations  in  these  strange  natures  of 
ours  that  only  God  can  satisfy.  Our  thinking  is  a 
mutilated  fragment  without  God,  and  our  hearts  can 
never  rest  unless  they  rest  in  God. 

And  worship,  oh,  how  it  can  soothe  !  Yea,  sometimes 
worship  alone  can  soothe  our  sorrows  and  our  anxieties. 
There  come  times  with  all  of  us  when  everything  else 
does  fail  us  ;  there  come  times  when  we  go  to  speak  with 
sorrowing  friends  and  feel  that  all  other  themes  are  weak 
and  vain.  You,  wicked  man  yonder — you  have  gone 
sometimes  to  visit  a  friend  that  was  in  great  distress, 
who  had  lost  a  dear  child,  it  may  be,  or  husband  or 
wife;  and  as  you  have  sat  down  by  your  friend  and 
wanted  to  say  something  comforting,  you  have  felt 


WORSHIP.  .} 

that  everything  else  was  vain  but  to  point  the  poor  sor- 
rowing heart  to  God ;  and  you  felt  ashamed  of  yourself 
that  you  did  not  dare  to  do  that.  How  often  have  devout 
hearts  found  comfort  in  sorrow,  found  support  in  anxiety, 
by  the  worship  of  God ;  by  the  thought  of  submission  to 
God  and  trust  in  God ;  a  belief  that  God  knows  what 
he  is  doing ;  that  God  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning ; 
that  God  makes  "  all  things  work  together  for  good  to 
those  that  love  him  !" 

And  I  add  that  the  worship  of  God  nourishes  the 
deepest  root  of  morality — individual  and  social.  Moral- 
ity cannot  live  upon  mere  ideas  of  expediency  and 
utility.  We  have  some  philosophers  in  our  day  (and 
they  show  abilities  and  earnestness  that  command  our 
respect,  though  they  may  seem  to  us  to  go  so  sadly  and 
so  far  astray)  who  have  persuaded  themselves,  alas  !  that 
Christianity  must  be  flung  aside ;  that  belief  in  God  even 
must  be  abandoned  ;  but  they  are  beginning  to  recognize 
the  necessity  for  trying  to  tell  the  world  what  they  are 
going  to  put  in  place  of  that,  for  the  conservation  of  in- 
dividual and  social  morality ;  and  so  the  great  English 
philosopher  of  the  present  time  tells  us  in  a  recent  work, 
and  the  gifted  author  of  "  Theophrastus  Such,"  who  is 
one  of  his  followers,  has  told  us,  that  natural  sympathy 
will  lead  us  to  recognize  that  we  owe  duties  to  others  as 
well  as  ourselves.  Natural  sympathy  is  going  to  do 
that.  Ah,  I  trow  not.  Sometimes  it  will,  if  there  be 
something  mightier  that  can  help.  Often  natural  sym- 
pathy will  fail.  The  root  of  morality  is  the  sentiment 
of  moral  obligation.  What  does  it  mean  when  your 
little  child  first  begins  to  say  "  I  ought  to  do  this  "  and 


10  WORSHIP. 

I  ought  not  to  do  that  ?"  What  does  it  mean  ?  "  I  ought." 
The  beasts  around  us  are  some  of  them  very  intelligent. 
They  seem  to  think  in  a  crude  fashion.  They  seem  to 
reason  in  a  rudimentary  way.  Our  intellect  is  not 
peculiar  to  us.  They  have  something  of  it,  but  they 
show  no  sign  of  having  the  rudiments  of  the  notion  that 
"  I  ought "  and  "  I  ought  not."  It  is  the  glory  of  man. 
It  marks  him  in  the  image  of  the  spiritual  one  that 
made  him.  And  what  is  to  nourish  and  keep  alive  and 
make  strong  that  sentiment  of  moral  obligation  in  our 
souls,  unless  it  be  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  there 
is  a  God  who  gave  us  this  high,  moral,  spiritual  being ; 
who  made  us  for  himself;  to  whom  we  belong,  because 
he  made  us,  and  because  he  made  us  to  love  him  until 
the  sentiment  of  obligation  to  him  shall  nourish  in  us 
the  feeling  of  obligation  to  our  fellow-men,  who,  like  us, 
are  made  in  his  image. 

But  we  are  told  that  there  is  going  to  be  a  moral 
interregnum  shortly ;  that  so  many  cultivated  men  in 
England  and  in  some  parts  of  our  country  are  rejecting 
all  religion ;  that  now  there  is  danger  that  society  will 
suffer  until  the  new  ideas  can  work  themselves  into 
popular  favor.  Yes,  indeed,  society  would  suffer  but  for 
one  thing,  and  that  is  that  still  there  are  and  still  there 
will  be  not  a  few  among  the  cultivated,  and  many,  thank 
God  !  among  those  who  are  not  blessed  with  cultivation, 
who  hold  fast  their  faith  in  the  only  true  God  and  in 
Jesus  Christ  whom  he  has  sent,  and  that  will  conserve 
society  and  hold  up  the  very  men  who  fancy  they  can  do 
without  Christianity. 

For  this  reason,  if  there  were  no  other,  it  would  be 


WORSHIP.  11 

worth  while  to  build  great  and  noble  churches  in  our 
great  cities,  as  we  build  monuments  for  other  things  to 
remind  men  of  grand  events  and  heroic  deeds  ;  so  that 
if  churches  were  never  entered,  they  would  be  worth 
building  as  memorials,  as  reminders  of  God  and  eternity. 
Amid  the  homes  of  wealth  and  luxury,  amid  the  splen- 
did centres  of  commerce,  and  amid,  alas  !  the  palaces  of 
vice,  our  churches  stand  serene  and  still,  pointing  up, 
like  the  Christian's  hope,  toward  heaven.  The  thought- 
less, the  wayward,  worldly  and  wicked  will  sometimes 
look  as  they  pass,  and  as  from  the  monuments  over  some 
heroic  dead  man,  they  catch  a  moment's  impression  for 
good,  so  from  the  church  edifice  itself  they  will  catch  a 
momentary  impression  of  higher  things,  and  be  at  least 
a  little  restrained  from  what  is  wrong  and  a  little  incited 
towards  what  is  right. 

And  that  is  but  the  least  of  it.  The  great  nourisher 
of  morality  in  the  individual  and  the  community  is  not 
the  mere  outward  symbol  ;  it  is  the  worship  that  is  paid 
within.  But  I  shall  say  no  more  on  this  theme.  All 
that  I  can  say  is  weak,  poor  and  vain.  How  can  a  man 
tell  the  reasons  why  we  should  worship  God  ?  They  are 
as  high  as  heaven,  as  wide  as  the  world,  as  vast  as  the 
universe';  all  existence  and  all  conception  —  everything  is 
a  reason  why  we  should  worship  God  ;  and  I  turn  to  the 
other  question,  to  which  the  text  especially  points. 

II.  How  should  we  worship  God  ?  I  wish  here  to 
speak  only  of  that  line  of  thought  which  the  text  pre- 
sents, How  shall  we  worship  God  with  spiritual  wor- 
ship? 

The  spiritual   worship  the  text  points  out  to  us  is 


COLLEGE  LIBRAE 

•, 


12  WORSHIP. 

essentially  independent  of  localities.  Time  was  when  it 
was  not  so :  when  the  best  worship  that  was  to  be 
expected  in  the  world  depended  upon  holy  places  and 
impressive  rites.  In  the  childhood  of  the  race  these 
ideas  were  necessary,  but  Christianity  came  as  the  matu- 
rity of  revealed  religion,  and  declared  that  those  ideas 
should  prevail  no  longer ;  /that  true  Christian  spiritual 
worship  is  essentially  independent  of  localities. ) 

My  friends,  under  the  Christian  system  you  cannot 
make  holy  places  ;  you  cannot  make  a  holy  house.  We 
speak  very  naturally  and  properly  enough,  if  with  due 
limitation,  in  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament,  about 
our  places  of  worship,  but  we  ought  to  remember  con- 
stantly the  limitations.  You  cannot  consecrate  a  building 
in  the  light  of  Christianity.  You  can  dedicate  the 
building ;  you  can  set  it  apart  to  be  used  only  for  the 
worship  of  God  ;  but  you  cannot  make  the  house  a  holy 
house;  it  is  an  idea  foreign  to  the  intense  spirituality 
which  Jesus  has  taught  us  belongs  to  the  Christian  idea 
of  worship.  Why,  then,  one  might  say,  why  should  we 
have  houses  of  worship  ?  not  merely  because  if  there  is 
to  be  the  worship  of  assemblies  at  all,  with  all  the 
strange  power  that  sympathy  gives  ~to  aggregated  wor- 
ship, then  there  must  be  places  of  assembly  ;  bat  because 
these  soon  become  associated  with  the  solemn  worship  we 
hold  in  them  and  sacred  by  their  associations,  and  if  we 
do  not  disturb  those  associations,  if  from  the  places  where 
we  are  wont  to  hold  solemn  worship,  we  keep  carefully 
away  all  that  tends  to  violate  those  associations,  they 
grow  in  power  upon  us ;  they  do  not  make  the  place 
holy,  but  they  make  it  easier  by  force  of  association  and 


WORSHIP.  13 

of  beneficent  habit  for  us  to  have  holy  thoughts  and  to 
pay  holy  worship  in  the  place  where  we  have  often  paid 
it  before.  So  we  can  see  why  it  is  fit  to  set  apart  places 
of  worship,  houses  of  worship  for  God,  though  they  be 
not  in  themselves  holy,  though  spiritual  worship  is  inde- 
pendent of  locality. 

Let  us  rise  to  a  broader  view  of  the  matter.  Spiritual 
worship  must  subordinate'  all  these  externals. 

Can  you  listen  a  few  minutes  while  I  offer  a  plain, 
unadorned,  unimpassioned  statement  about  this  really 
practical  matter,  surely  suitable  to  our  circumstances, 
worthy  to  be  discussed;  for  there  are  many  extremes 
about  it  among  men,  and  though  you  may  not  go  with 
my  thought,  it  may  help  you  to  think  the  matter 
through  for  yourself.  I  say,  then,  on  the  one  hand, 
spiritual  worship  must  have  its  externals.  For  while 
we  are  spiritual,  like  God,  we  are  something  else  also. 
We  have  a  material  nature,  and  we  are  all  closely  linked 
and  inter-dependent  and  acting  upon  each  other  contin- 
ually. It  is  idle,  then,  to  think  that  our  worship  will 
be  all  that  it  is  capable  of  becoming  if  we  try  to  keep  it 
exclusively  spiritual  and  give  it  no  outward  expression 
at  all.  When  you  try  to  pray  in  private  by  your  own 
bed-side,  alone  with  your  beating  heart  and  your  God, 
you  mistake  if  you  try  to  pray  without  couching  your 
thought  and  feeling  in  words.  We  need  the  force  of 
expression,  though  we  utter  not  the  words.  We  need 
to  have  the  words  in  order  to  give  clearness  and  form  to 
our  thought  and  our  sentiment;  and  it  is  good,  eveji 
when  alone,  in  low,  solemn  tones  to  speak  aloud  one's 
private  prayer,  for  that  seems  somehow,  by  a  law  of  our 


14  WORSHIP. 

nature,  to  make  deeper  the  feeling  which  we  thus  out- 
wardly express;  and  if  we  do  so  even  in  private  prayer, 
how  much  more  is  it  necessarily  true  in  public  wor- 
ship! 

We  must  have  expression  then  for  our  worship,  that 
there  may  be  sympathy — expression  that  shall  awaken 
and  command  sympathy.  We  must  use  the  language 
of  imagination  and  passion  as  in  the  Scriptures.  The 
Scriptures  are  full  of  the  language  of  imagination  and 
passion — language  that  is  meant  to  stir  the  souls  of 
men.  And  when  we  sing — sing  in  the  simplest  and 
plainest  way,  if  you  please — we  are  yet  striving  to  use 
that  as  one  of  the  externals  of  spiritual  worship.  We 
need  it.  We  must  have  externals.  Why,  then — a  man 
might  ask,  and  men  often  have  asked — why  not  have 
anything  and  everything  that  will  contribute  at  all  to 
help  the  expression  and  cherish  the  devout  feeling? 
Why  not  have  everything  in  architecture,  everything  in 
painting  and  statuary,  everything  in  special  garments, 
in  solemn  processions,  in  significant  posture  ?  Why  not 
anything  and  everything  that  may  at  all  help  as  an  ex- 
ternal expression  of  devout  feeling?  Let  us  consider 
this,  I  pray  you.  I  said  spiritual  worship  must  have 
its  externals,  and  now  I  repeat  that  it  must  subordinate 
those  externals;  whatever  externals  it  cannot  subordi- 
nate it  must  discard,  and  the  externals  it  does  employ  it 
must  employ  needfully.  There  are  some  things  that 
awaken  in  some  men  a  sort  of  fictitious,  quasi-devout 
feeling,  which  you  never  would  think  of  recommending  as 
aids  to  devotion.  Some  persons  when  they  use  opium 
have  a  dreamy  sort  of  devoutness,  and  some  persons, 


WORSHIP.  15 

even  when  they  become  drunk,  show  a  morbid  sort  of 
religion.  Yet  who  would  think  of  saying  that  these  are 
acts  that  help  to  devotion?  But  there  are  feelings  that 
are  right  in  themselves  and  noble  in  their  place  that  do 
in  some  cases  help  to  promote  devotional  feeling.  The 
husband  and  wife,  when  they  bow  down  with  their 
children  by  their  sides  to  pray  together,  and  then,  rising 
up,  look  lovingly  into  each  other's  eyes,  find  their  de- 
vout feeling  towards  God  heightened  by  their  love  for 
each  other  and  their  children.  I  can  fancy  that  the 
young  man  and  maiden  who  both  fear  God  and  have 
learned  to  love  each  other  may  sometimes  feel  their  de- 
vout sentiments  truly  heightened  by  this  new,  strange 
and  beautiful  affection  which  they  have  learned  to  feel 
for  each  other.  That  is  so  sometimes,  and  yet  every- 
body sees  that  to  recommend  that  as  an  avowed  and 
systematic  thing  to  be  used  as  a  help  to  devotion  would 
be  out  of  the  question.  Not  everything,  then,  that  may 
promote  devotion  is  to  be  regularly  used  for  this  pur- 
pose. 

There  are  some  things  that  look  as  if  they  were 
necessary,  are  very  often  recommended  as  helpful,  and 
often  employed  as  helps,  that  turn  out  to  be  dangerous 
and  erroneous.  Why  can't  we  use  pictures  and  statu- 
ary as  helps  to  devotion?  Why  can't  we  employ  them 
as  proper  means  of  making  the  thought  of  our  Saviour 
near  and  dear  to  us?  Well,  in  all  the  ages  of  the 
world,  the  heathen  have  tried  this.  An  educated  young 
Hindoo,  some  years  ago,  educated  in  England,  wrote  an 
essay  in  which  he  complained  bitterly  that  the  Hin- 
doos were  accused  of  worshipping  images,  and  quoted 


16  WORSHIP. 

Cowper's  beautiful  poem  entitled,  "My  Mother's  Pic- 
ture:" 

"O,  that  those  lips  had  language! 
Years  have  passed  since  thee  I  saw." 

And  he  says,  the  picture  of  the  poet's  mother  brought 
close  and  made  real  the  thought  of  one  long  dead.  That 
is  the  way,  he  said,  that  we  use  images.  But  that  is 
not  the  way  that  the  great  mass  of  men  use  images  in 
worship.  They  have  often  meant  that  at  the  outset; 
but  how  soon  it  degenerated  and  was  degraded,  and 
these  things  that  were  meant  as  helps  to  worship 
dragged  down  the  aspirations  of  human  hearts,  instead 
of  lifting  them  up  !  But,  it  seems  to  me,  if  I  were  to 
employ  such  helps  in  our  time,  persuading  myself  that 
they  would  be  good,  that  I  should  feel  it  was  wise  to  go 
back  to  the  old  ten  commandments  that  we  teach  our 
children  to  repeat,  and  cut  out  the  second  command- 
ment, that  expressly  forbids  the  use  of  graven  images, 
because  it  necessarily  leads  to  idolatry.  I  should  cut 
that  out.  You  can  inquire,  if  you  are  curious  to  do 
so — and  I  say  it  in  no  unkindness — you  can  inquire 
whether  those  Christians  in  our  own  time  and  country 
who  employ  pictures  and  statuary  to-day  as  helps  to 
devotion  have  mutilated  the  ten  commandments.  They 
were  obliged  to  leave  out  that  which  their  little  children 
would  say  was  forbidding  what  they  do. 

Aye,  the  world  has  tried  that  experiment  widely  and 
in  every  way,  and  it  is  found  that  though  you  might 
think  that  pictures  and  statuary  would  be  helps  to  de- 
votion, they  turn  out  to  be  hurtful.  They  may  help  a 
few ;  they  harm  many.  They  may  .do  a  little  good ; 
they  do  much  evil. 


WORSHIP.  17 

But  there  are  some  of  these  things  which  we  must 
have  to  some  extent, — church  buildings,  architecture, 
music,  cultivated  eloquence.  How  about  these?  We 
are  obliged  to  have  these.  We  must  have  the  rude  and 
coarse,  if  we  have  not  the  refined  and  elegant ;  and  just 
what  we  may  have  in  this  respect — why,  it  depends,  of 
course,  upon  what  we  have  been  accustomed  to  in  our 
homes,  our  places  of  public  assembly,  our  halls  of  jus- 
tice. That  which  is  natural,  needful  and  good  for  some 
would  utterly  distract  the  attention  of  others.  Take  a 
man  from  the  most  ignorant  rural  region,  utterly  un- 
used to  such  things,  and  place  him  in  this  house  next 
Sunday  morning,  and  his  attention  would  be  utterly 
distracted  by  the  architectural  beauties  of  the  place  and 
the  strange  power  of  the  music,  and  he  would  be 
scarcely  able  to  have  any  other  thought.  These  things 
would  be  hurtful  to  him ;  but  to  those  who  have  been 
used  to  them  and  who,  in  their  own  houses,  have  been 
accustomed  to  elegance  and  beauty,  or  in  the  homes  •  of 
others  they  sometimes  enter,  or  in  the  great  places  of 
public  assembly  in  the  cities  where  they  live,  these 
things  need  not  be  hurtful  to  them.  They  may  be 
helpful  to  them.  Ah,  my  friends,  they  need  to  be  used 
by  us  all  with  caution  and  with  earnest  efforts  to  make 
them  helpful  to  devotion,  or  they  will  drag  down  our 
attention  to  themselves.  Often  it  is  so.  You  go  home 
with  your  children,  talking  only  about  the  beauty  of 
your  house  of  worship  or  the  beauty  of  the  music,  and 
how  soon  your  children  will  come  to  think  and  feel  that 
that  is  all  there  is  to  come  to  church  for,  and  how  many 
there  are  who  do  thus  think  and  feel. ' 
2 


18  WORSHIP. 

It  is  easy  to  talk  nonsense  on  the  subject  of  church 
music.  It  is  very  difficult  to  talk  wisely.  But  I  think 
we  sometimes  forget  in  our  time  that  there  is  a  distinc- 
tion between  secular  and  sacred  music.  I  have  seen 
places  where  they  did  not  seem  to  know  there  was  such 
a  distinction.  They  seem  to  have  obliterated  it  by 
using  so  much  purely  secular  music  in  sacred  worship. 
It  is  a  distinction  not  easy  to  define,  I  know,  but  easy 
enough  to  comprehend  on  the  part  of  one  who  is  culti- 
vated and  has  an  ear  for  music  and  a  heart  for  devo- 
tion. It  is  a  distinction  that  ought  always  to  be 
needfully  regarded.  Our  beautiful  church  music  I  de- 
light in.  I  have  sat  here  this  afternoon  and  evening, 
and  it  has  done  me  good  to  listen  to  it;  but  we  must 
learn  to  use  it  as  a  help  to  devotion,  or  else  we  are  using 
it  wrong,  and  it  will  do  us  harm.  We  must  not  only 
cultivate  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  artistic  music  for  the 
sake  of  enjoyment,  but  what  is  far  ^more  than  enjoy- 
ment, we  must  cultivate  the  power  of  making  it  a  help 
to  religious  worship.  We  must  learn  to  do  that,  or  we 
must  refuse  to  have  it.  There  is  danger  here.  My 
friends,  you  should  rejoice  in  the  high  privileges  of  cul- 
tivated society  and  refined  homes,  beautiful  places  of 
worship,  glorious  sounds  of  music  and  a  lofty  style  of 
eloquence ;  but  there  is  danger  for  you.  I  have  heard 
people  say  sometimes:  "I  don't  believe  in  the  religion 
of  the  negroes.  I  go  to  the  place  of  worship  of  the  ne- 
groes, and  I  find  they  work  themselves  into  a  mere 
animal  excitement.  They  sway  their  bodies,  and  parade 
around  the  room,  and  shake  hands,  and  shout,  and  em- 
brace each  other;  and  work  up  mere  animal  excitement ; 


WORSHIP.  19 

but  there  is  no  religion  in  that."  Oh,  you  child  of  cul- 
ture !  Go  to  your  beautiful  place  of  worship,  with  its 
dim,  religious  light,  its  pealing  organ,  its  highly  culti- 
vated gentleman,  trained  in  elegant  literature  to  speak 
in  a  beautiful  style,  as  he  ought  to  do,  and  you  may 
have  excited  in  you  a  mere  Eesthetic  sentiment  which 
may  have  no  more  real  worship  in  it  than  the  poor 
negro's  animal  excitement.  But,  thank  God!  they 
sometimes  really  have  a  genuine  religion  about  it,  as 
genuine  as  yours. 

There  is  danger  there,  but  my  friends  there  is  always 
danger,  and  we  must  learn  to  discard  that  which  we  can- 

O        / 

not  subordinate  to  spiritual  worship,  learn  to  use  heed- 
fully,  with  constant  effort  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
families  and  for  our  friends  to  use  that  which  it  is  right 
to  use,  that  it  may  help  and  not  hinder.  I  pray  you, 
then,  do  not  go  to  asking  people  to  come  just  to  see  your 
beautiful  house  of  worship  or  to  listen  to  your  noble 
music.  Some  will  come  for  that  reason  alone,  and  you 
cannot  help  it.  But  do  not  encourage  such  a  thought. 
Talk  about  worship.  Talk  about  these  externals  as 
helps  to  the  solemn  worship  of  God.  Try  to  take  that 
view  of  it.  Try  to  make  other  people  take  that  view  of 
it.  Be  afraid  for  yourselves,  and  try  to  speak  of  it  for 
its  own  sake  and  not  for  the  sake  of  the  Eesthetic  gratifi- 
cation it  may  give. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  can  you  listen  a  few  moments 
longer  to  some  closing  words  ?  Worship :  spiritual 
worship.  I  think  that  in  most  of  our  churches — our 
churches  that  have  no  set  ritual,  no  fixed  form  of 
worship — there  is  a  disposition  to  underrate  the  import- 


20  WORSHIP. 

ance  of  public  worship ;  to  think  only  of  the  preaching. 
1  notice  that  in  those  churches,  not  only  our  own,  but 
those  like  it  that  have  no  special  form  of  worship,  they 
always  give  notice  for  preaching  and  not  for  worship, 
they  only  talk  about  the  preacher  and  not  the  worship. 
They  seem  to  think  it  makes  little  difference  if  they  are 
too  late  for  worship,  provided  they  are  there  in  time  for 
the  sermon.  I  notice  that  many  preachers  seem  to  give 
their  whole  thought  to  their  sermon,  and  think  nothing 
of  preparing  themselves  for  that  high  task,  that  solemn, 
responsible  undertaking,  to  try  to  lift  up  the  hearts  of  a 
great  assembly  in  prayer  to  God.  What  I  wish  to  say 
is,  wherever  that  may  be  true,  let  us  consider  whether  we 
ought  not  to  take  more  interest  in  our  worship,  in  the 
reading  of  God's  word  for  devotional  impression,  in 
solemn,  sacred  song  and  in  humble  prayer  to  God,  in 
which  we  wish  the  hearts  of  the  whole  assembly  to  rise 
and  melt  together.  It  is  true  that  we  must  have  a  care 
how  we  cultivate  variety  here,  for  the  hearts  of  men 
seem  to  take  delight  in  something  of  routine  in  their 
worship  ;  they  are  rested  if  they  know  what  comes  next ; 
they  are  harassed  often  if  they  are  frequently  dis- 
appointed and  something  quite  unexpected  comes  in. 
We  must  keep  our  variety  within  limits,  but  within 
limits  we  must  cultivate  variety.  I  believe  there  should 
be  more  attention  paid  to  making  our  worship  varied  in 
its  interest  than  is  usually  the  case ;  and  then,  oh,  my 
brethren,  something  far  more  important  for  the  preacher 
and  people  is  this — we  must  put  heart  into  our  worship. 
We  must  not  care  merely  to  hear  a  man  preach.  I  do 
not  wish  you  to  think  less  of  preaching,  but  more  of  the 


WORSHIP.  21 

other.  We  must  put  heart  into  our  worship.  Even  the 
sermon  is  a  two-sided  thing — one  side  of  it  is  part  of  our 
worship  so  far  as  it  causes  devotional  feeling  and  lifts 
up  the  heart  towards  God,  though  on  its  other  side  of  in- 
struction and  exhortation  it  is  distinct  from  worship. 

Now,  I  say  we  must  put  heart  in  our  worship.  Do 
not  venture  to  come  to  this  beautiful  place  of  worship,  or 
whatever  place  of  worship  you  attend,  and  just  sit 
languidly  down  to  see  if  the  choir  can  stir  you  or  to  see 
if  the  preacher  can  stir  you.  Oh  !  stir  up  your  own  souls. 
It  is  your  solemn  duty  when  you  go  to  engage  with  others 
in  the  worship  of  God — it  is  your  duty  to  yourself,  it  is 
your  duty  to  others,  it  is  your  duty  to  the  pastor  who 
wishes  to  lead  your  worship,  it  is  your  duty  to  God,  who 
wants  the  hearts  of  men,  and  who  will  have  nothing  but 
their  hearts.  I  know  how  we  feel.  Worn  by  a  week's 
toil,  languid  on  the  Lord's  day  through  lack  of  our 
customary  excitement,  we  go  and  take  our  places,  jaded 
and  dull,  and  we  are  tempted  to  think,  "  Now  I  will  see 
whether  the  services  can  make  any  impression  on  me ; 
whether  the  preacher  can  get  hold  of  me — I  hope  they 
may,"  and  we  sit  passive  to  wait  and  see.  Oh,  let  us  not 
dare  thus  to  deal  with  the  solemnity  of  the  worship  of 
God. 

My  brethren,  if  we  learn  to  worship  aright,  there  will 
be  beautiful  and  blessed  consequences.  It  will  bring  far 
more  of  good  to  our  own  souls.  It  will  make  worship 
far  more  impressive  to  our  children.  Haven't  you  ob- 
served that  it  is  getting  to  be  one  of  the  questions  of  our 
day  how  the  Sunday-school  children  are  to  be  drawn  to 
our  public  worship?  We  are  often  told  that  the  preacher 


22  WORSHIP. 

must  try  to  make  his  sermon  more  attractive  to  chil- 
dren, and  so  he  must.  But  let  us  also  make  our  worship 
more  impressive,  and  make  our  children  feel  that  it  is 
their  duty  to  worship  God,  and  try  to  bring  them  under 
the  influence  of  this  worship.  I  heard  last  week  in 
Washington  one  of  the  foremost  Sunday-school  laborers 
of  this  country,  a  Methodist  minister,  make  this  state- 
ment in  private.  He  said  :  "  Of  late  I  have  been  telling 
the  people  everywhere,  if  your  children  cannot  do  both, 
cannot  go  to  Sunday-school  and  go  to  the  public  worship 
also,  keep  them  away  from  the  Sunday-school,  for  they 
must  go  to  the  public  worship."  You  may  call  that  an 
extravagant  statement.  I  am  not  sure  that  it  is  ex- 
travagant, but  I  am  sure  of  this,  that  we  need  not 
merely  to  try  to  make  our  preaching  attract  children, 
but  to  try  to  make  the  worship  so  solemn,  so  real,  so 
genuine,  so  earnest,  that  those  strange  little  earnest 
hearts  of  our  children  will  feel  that  there  is  something 
there  that  strikes  to  their  souls. 

And  if  you  have  true,  fervent  worship  of  God,  the 
stranger  that  comes  into  your  place  of  worship  will  feel 
it  too.  Have  you  not  noticed  when  you  go  into  some 
houses  how  quickly  you  perceive  that  you  are  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  hospitality  and  genuine  kindness  ?  There 
may  be  no  parade,  no  speech-making.  Yet  in  some 
places  you  may  feel  it,  you  feel  it  in  the  atmosphere, 
you  feel  it  at  once  in  your  soul ;  you  see  a  place  where 
they  are  kindly  and  loving.  So  it  ought  to  be,  that 
when  a  man  comes  into  your  place  of  worship  he  shall 
very  soon  feel  a  something  that  pervades  the  atmosphere 
he  breathes,  from  the  look  of  the  people,  from  the  solemn 


WOESHIP.  23 

stillness,  from  the  unaffected  earnestness  he  shall  feel 
that  these  people  are  genuine,  solemn  worshippers  of 
God.  When  he  feels  that,  he  will  conclude  that  God  is 
with  you  of  a  truth  and  there  will  be  power  to  move 
his  soul  in  your  solemn  worship. 

Now,  my  brethren,  in  this  beautiful  house  which  you 
have  built  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  are  now  dedi- 
cating to  His  worship,  oh,  may  there  be  much  of  real 
spiritual  worship.  When  your  hearts  are  full  sometimes 
and  you  come  and  try  to  throw  your  souls  into  God's 
worship,  may  you  be  moved  and  melted ;  when  you  are 
sorely  tempted  sometimes  and,  coming  to  the  house  of 
God,  try  to  lift  your  heart  to  Him  in  prayer,  may  you 
get  good  from  the  wise  and  loving  words  of  the  man 
you  love  to  see  stand  before  you  as  your  pastor. 

As  your  children  grow  up  by  your  side  and  learn  to 
delight  with  you  in  coming  to  the  house  of  God  in  com- 
pany, oh,  may  you  be  permitted  to  see  more  and  more  of 
them  gladly  coming  to  tell  what  great  things  God  has 
done  for  their  souls,  and  gladly  coming  to  put  on  Christ 
by  baptism.  And  not  only  the  children  of  your  house- 
holds, but  strangers  within  your  gates.  How  soon  they 
will  be  pouring  into  this  great  city  from  the  far  East  and 
the  wonderful  West,  from  all  the  North  and  all  the 
South,  and  from  beyond  the  sea  !  •  How  they  will,  in 
these  coming  years,  pour  into  this  imperial,  central  city, 
with  its  vast  possibilities  that  swell  the  souls  of  your 
business  men,  and  that  ought  to  swell  the  souls  of  your 
religious  men.  May  the  stranger  within  your  gates 
learn  here  to  love  your  Saviour  and  rejoice  here  to  pro- 
claim that  love,  and  rise  from  the  liquid  grave  to  walk 


'J4  WORSHIP. 

in  newness  of  life.  And  again  and  again,  as  you 
gather  for  that  simplest  of  all  ceremonies,  as  it  is  the 
most  solemn,  which  Jesus  himself  appointed,  in  all  sim- 
plicity taking  bread  and  wine  in  remembrance  of  him, 
may  he  who  sees  men's  hearts,  see  always  that  your 
hearts  are  towards  him  in  godly  sincerity.  And  when 
offerings  are  asked  here  may  they  be  offerings  given  as  a 
part  of  the  worship  of  God,  offerings  that  come  from 
your  hearts,  offerings  that  are  accepted  by  him  who 
wants  the  heart,  offerings  that  are  worthy  of  this  beauti- 
ful home  of  your  church  life,  and  worthy  to  follow  the 
gifts  wherewith  you  have  erected  it.  And  time  and 
again  may  there  go  forth  those  who  have  learned  to  wor- 
ship here  like  successive  swarms  from  fruitful  hives  to 
carry  the  same  spirit  of  worship  elsewhere,  here  and 
there,  in  great  and  growing  and  needy  cities. 

Yes,  and  when  the  young  of  your  households  begin 
to  link  those  households  more  closely  than  ever  together, 
and  on  the  bright  bridal  day  the  brilliant  procession 
comes  sweeping  up  the  aisle  and  all  men's  hearts  are  glad ; 
may  they  always  come  reverently  in  the  fear  of  the  God 
they  have  here  learned  to  worship.  And  O,  mortal 
men  and  women,  who  have  united  to  build  high  and 
glorious  piles  that  will  stand  when  you  are  gone,  when 
in  the  hour  of  your  departure  from  the  works  of  your 
hands,  and  from  the  worship  that  you  have  loved  on 
earth,  and  slow  and  solemn  up  the  aisle  they  bear  the 
casket  that  holds  all  that  is  left  to  earth  of  you,  and  be- 
hind come  sad-faced  men  and  sobbing  women,  and  while 
the  solemn  music  sounds  through  all  these  vaults  and 
your  pastor  rises,  struggling  to  control  his  own  sorrow 


WORSHIP.  25 

for  the  death  of  one  he  loved  so  well — O,  may  it  be 
true,  in  that  hour  which  is  coming — may  you  begin  from 
this  night  so  to  live  that  it  shall  then  be  true,  that  the 
mourners  of  that  hour  may  sorrow  here,  not  as  those  who 
have  no  hope,  and  that  the  men  and  women  who  honor 
you,  and  have  gathered  to  pay  honor  to  your  memory, 
may  feel  like  saying  in  simple  sincerity  as  they  look 
upon  your  coffin,  "  the  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed  ;  let 
me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous  and  let  my  last  end  be 
like  his."  O  begin  to-day,  God  help  you  to  begin  from 
this  hour  of  entrance  into  your  new  place  of  worship  so 
to  live  that  all  this  may  be  true  when  you  pass  away. 

But  one  more  thought.  There  will  never  be  any  per- 
fect worship  in  this  house.  When  was  there  ever  any 
perfect  worship  ?  Once  there  was.  There  was  a  little 
obscure  village  ;  the  military  history  of  the  country  does 
not  mention  it ;  the  older  sacred  writings  do  not.  It 
was  a  despised  village,  and  there  was  a  lowly  mechanic, 
who  spent  his  early  life  in  that  village  quietly,  unpre- 
tending and  unnoticed,  and  who  used  to  go  on  the  Sab- 
bath day  to  the  synagogue.  He  paid  perfect  worship. 
Oh,  glorious,  beautiful  spectacle  !  He  paid  perfect  wor- 
ship, but  since  his  day  there  has  never  been  any  perfect 
worship  in  this  world.  Shall  there  be  any  perfect  wor- 
ship for  us  then,  dear  hearers,  who  sometimes  aspire  to- 
wards God  and  long  to  worship  him  in  true  spirituality, 
but  never  find  the  full  attainment  ?  God  be  thanked,  we 
have  hope  of  that  higher  and  better  life  where  we  shall 
worship  without  effort  and  without  imperfection.  And 
God  help  us  that  we  may  strive  to  worship  here  with  all 
our  hearts,  in  the  hope  that  at  last  we  shall  worship 
perfectly  there^ ^g  COU.EGE  UBR/W 


II. 


SOME  LAWS  OF  SPIRITUAL  WORK* 

But  he  said  unto  them,  I  have  meat  to  eat  that  ye  know  not.  The 
disciples  therefore  said  t,ne  to  another,  Hnth  any  man  brought  him 
au'j/it  to  eat  f  Je*us  saith  unto  them.  My  meal  is  to  do  the  will  of  him 
that  sent  me,  and  to  accomplish  his  wurk.  Say  not  ye,  There  are  yet 
faur  months,  and  then  com<  th  the  harvest  f  JJehcld,  I  say  unto  you, 
Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields,  that  they  are  while  already 
unto  harvest.  He  tlutt  reipeth  receiveth  wages,  and  gathereth  fruit 
unto  life  eternal;  that  he  that  sowelh  and  he  that  reaptth  may  rejoice 
together.  For  herein  is  the  taying  true,  One  soweth,  and  another  reap- 
eth.  I  sent  you  fa  reap  that  whereon  ye  have  not  labored  :  others  have 
labored,  and  ye  are  entered  into  their  labor.  —  John  iv.  32-38. 


rPHE  disciples  must  have  been  very  much  astonished 
at  the  change  which  they  observed  in  the  Master's 
appearance.  They  left  him,  when  they  went  away  to 
a  neighboring  city  to  buy  food,  reclining  beside  Jacob's 
well,  quite  worn  out  with  the  fatigue  of  their  journey, 
following  upon  the  fatigues  of  long  spiritual  labors. 
And  here  now  he  is  sitting  up,  his  face  is  animated, 
his  eyes  kindled.  He  has  been  at  work  again.  Pres,- 
ently  they  ask  him  to  partake  of  the  food  which  they 
had  brought,  and  his  answer  surprised  them  :  "  I  have 
food  to  eat  that  ye  know  not."  They  looked  around, 
and  saw  nobody;  the  woman  to  whom  he  had  been 
speaking  was  gone,  and  they  said  :  "  Has  any  one 
brought  him  something  to  eat?"  Jesus  answered: 
"My  food  is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me,  and 

*  Washington  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  Brooklyn,  1884. 

26 


SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK.  27 

to  accomplish  his  work."  And  then,  with  this  thought 
of  work,  he  changes  the  image  to  sowing  and  reaping, 
and  bids  them  go  forth  to  the  harvest. 

Now,  from  this  passage  with  its  images,  I  have 
wished  to  discourse  upon  some  laws  of  spiritual  work, 
as  here  set  forth.  For  we  are  beginning  to  see,  in  our 
time,  that  there  are  laws  in  the  spiritual  sphere  as  truly 
as  in  the  mental  and  in  the  physical  spheres.  What 
are  the  laws  of  spiritual  work  which  the  Saviour  here 
indicates?  I  name  four: 

I.  Spiritual  work  is  refreshing  to  soul  and  body. 
"My  food  is,"  said  the  tired,  hungry  one,  who  had 
aroused  himself,  "  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me, 
and  to  accomplish  his  work."  We  all  know  the  power 
of  the  body  over  the  mind,  and  we  all  know,  I  trust, 
the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body ;  how  any  anima- 
ting theme  can  kindle  the  mind  until  the  wearied  body 
will  be  stirred  to  new  activities ;  until  the  man  will  for- 
get that  he  was  tired,  because  of  that  in  which  he  is 
interested.  But  it  must  be  something  that  does  deeply 
interest  the  mind.  And  so  there  is  suggested  to  us  the 
thought  that  we  ought  to  learn  to  love  spiritual  work. 
If  we  love  spiritual  wovk  it  will  kindle  our  souls ;  it 
will  even  give  health  and  vigor  to  our  bodies.  There 
are  some  well-meaning,  but  good-for-nothing,  professed 
Christians  in  our  time,  who  would  have  better  health  of 
mind  and  even  better  health  of  body,  if  they  would  do 
more  religious  work  and  be  good  for  something  in  their 
day  and  generation. 

How  shall  we  learn  to  love  religious  work  so  that  it 
may  kindle  and  refresh  us?  Old  Daniel  Sharp,  who 


28  SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK. 

was  a  famous  Baptist  minister  in  Boston  years  ago,  used 
to  be  very  fond  of  repeating,  "  The  only  way  to  learn 
to  preach  is  to -preach."  Certainly,  the  only  way  to 
learn  to  do  anything  is  to  do  the  thing.  The  only  way 
to  learn  to  do  spiritual  work  is  to  do  spiritual  work,  the 
only  way  to  learn  to  love  spiritual  work  is  to  keep  doing 
it  until  we  gain  pleasure  from  the  doing ;  until  we  dis- 
cern rewards  in  connection  with  the  doing  ;  and  to  cher- 
ish all  the  sentiments  which  will  awaken  in  us  that 
"  enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  which  it  was  Jesus  that  in- 
troduced among  men ;  and  to  love  the  souls  of  our 
fellow-men,  to  love  the  wandering,  misguided  lives,  to 
love  the  suffering  and  sinning  all  around  us  with  such 
an  impassioned  love  that  it  shall  be  a  delight  to  us  to  do 
them  good  and  to  try  to  save  them  from  death.  Then 
that  will  refresh  both  mind  and  body. 

II.  There  are  seasons  in  the  spiritual  sphere — sowing 
seasons  and  reaping  seasons,  just  as  there  are  in  farming. 
" Say  not  ye,''  said  Jesus,  "there  are  yet  four  months 
and  then  cometh  the  harvest  ?  " — that  is  to  say,  it  was 
four  months  from  that  time  till  the  harvest.  They 
sowed  their  wheat  in  December ;  they  began  to  reap  it 
in  April.  "  Say  not  ye,  there  are  four  months,  and  then 
cometh  the  harvest?  behold,  I  say  unto  you,  lift  up 
your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields ;  for  they  are  white 
already  to  harvest."  In  the  spiritual  sphere  it  was  a 
harvest  time  then,  and  they  were  bidden  to  go  forth  and 
reap  the  harvest  that  waved  white  and  perishing.  We 
can  see,  as  we  look  back,  that  the  ends  of  all  the  ages 
had  now  come  to  that  time ;  that  the  long  course  of 
providential  preparation,  dimly  outlined  in  the  Old 


SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIEITUAL   WORK.  29 

Testament,  had  led  to  the  state  of  things  that  then  pre- 
vailed ;  that  the  fulness  of  the  times  had  come,  when 
God  sent  forth  his  Son  to  teach  men  and  to  atone  for 
men,  and  to  rise  again  and  come  forth  as  their  Saviour, 
and  that  his  servants  should  go  forth  in  his  name. 
And  the  like  has  been  true  in  many  other  seasons  of 
Christianity  ;  there  have  been  great  reaping  times,  when 
men  have  harvested  the  fruits  which  come  from  the  seed 
scattered  by  others  long  before. 

I  persuade  myself  that  such  a  time  will  be  seen  ere 
long  in  the  world  again.  I  think  that  the  young  who 
are  here  present  to-day — though  they  may  forget  the 
preacher  and  his  prediction — will  live  to  see  the  time 
when  there  will  be  a  great  season  of  harvest  that  will 
astonish  mankind.  In  the  great  heathen  world  I  think 
it  will  be  true  that  the  labors  of  our  missionaries  are 
preparing  the  way,  and  that  in  the  course  of  divine 
providence — the  same  providence  that  overruled  the 
history  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  and  Greece  and  Rome — 
the  greatest  nations  of  Asia  are  now  becoming  rapidly 
prepared  to  receive  a  new  faith.  They  say,  who  live 
there  and  ought  to  know,  that  there  is  a  wonderful 
breaking  up  of  religious  opinion  in  all  Hindostan,  with 
its  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people — five  times 
as  many,  almost,  as  in  our  great  country— that  they  are 
learning  to  let  go  their  old  faiths,  and  that  the  time 
must  soon  come  when,  in  sheer  bewilderment  and  blind- 
ness, as  it  were,  men  will  search  round  for  something 
else  to  look  upon,  something  else  to  lay  hold  upon.  It 
is  a  sad  thing  to  see  great  nations  of  mankind  surren- 
dered to  utter  unbelief,  but  it  has  often  proven  the  prep- 


30  SOME   LAWS   OF  SPIRITUAL   WORK. 

aration  for  their  accepting  a  true  and  mighty  and 
blessed  faith.  I  think  one  can  see,  in  the  marvellous 
changes  which  are  going  on  in  Japan,  a  preparation  for 
like  effects  there;  and  as  Japan  is,  for  the  civilized 
world,  the  gateway  into  China,  and  our  missionaries  are 
already  at  work  there  and  great  changes  are  taking 
place  there,  so  it  is  quite  possible  that  even  in  one  or 
two  generations  there  will  be  a  wide  spread  of  Christian- 
ity in  that  wonderful  nation  of  mankind.  God  grant 
that  it  may  be  so  ! 

I  think  the  same  thing  is  going  to  happen  in  our  own 
country.  We  have  been  living  in  a  time  of  eclipse,  so 
to  speak,  of  late  years,  but  I  think  another  reaction  will 
come.  Some  of  us  can  remember  that  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago  there  was  almost  no  avowed  infidelity  in  this 
country.  There  was  not  a  publisher  in  New  York,  who 
had  any  respect  for  himself  and  any  large  hope  of  suc- 
cess, that  would  have  had  a  book  with  one  page  of 
avowed  unbelief  in  it  on  his  shelves.  How  different  it 
is  now ! 

We  have  been  passing,  as  I  said,  through  a  reaction. 
In  the  early  part  of  this  century  our  whole  country  was 
honeycombed  with  infidelity.  It  was  ten  times  worse 
than  it  is  to-day.  But  in  1825,  1830,  1840,  1850,  there 
were  wide  spread  changes,  revivals  ;  and  a  great  many 
men  were  brought  into  our  churches  who  had  not  the 
root  of  the  matter  in  them,  and  a  lax  discipline  and  a 
low  state  of  religious  living  became,  alas  !  too  common, 
and  we  have  been  reaping  the  bitter  fruits.  Alas !  how 
often  it  has  happened  that  some  man  has  become 
notorious  in  the  newspapers  as  a  defaulter,  or  a  criminal 


SOME    LAWS   OF   SPIEITUAL   WORK.  31 

in  some  other  way,  and  we  have  been  compelled  to  read 
the  added  statement,  that  he  was  a  member  of  such  and 
such  a  church,  was  a  Sunday-school  superintendent, 
teacher,  or  what  not.  How  often  it  has  happened  ! 
This  has  been  one  of  many  causes — I  cannot  stop  now 
to  analyze  and  point  out,  but  they  can  be  analyzed  and 
pointed  out — of  such  widespread  unbelief  of  lato  years. 
But  it  cannot  last.  There  never  was  such  activity  in  the 
Christian  world ;  and  if  our  earnest  Christian  people 
stand  firm,  if  they  practice  in  all  directions  that  earnest- 
ness of  Christian  purpose,  if  they  try  to  maintain  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  and  live  up  to  it  in  their  own  lives, 
and  lift  up  their  prayer  to  God  for  his  blessing,  there 
will  come  another  great  sweeping  reaction.  It  is  as  sure 
to  come  as  there  is  logic  in  history  or  in  human  nature. 
It  is  as  sure  to  come  as  there  is  truth  in  the  promises  of 
God's  word.  O,  may  many  of  you  live  to  see  that  day 
and  rejoice  at  its  coming  ! 

The  same  thing  is  true  in  individual  churches,  that 
there  are  seasons  of  sowing  and  reaping.  It  has  to  be 
so.  We  sometimes  say  we  do  not  believe  in  the  revival 
idea;  we  think  there  ought  to  be  revival  in  the  church 
all  the  time.  If  you  mean  that  we  ought  always  to  be 
seeking  for  spiritual  fruits,  always  aiming  at  spiritual 
advancement,  it  is  true.  But  if  you  mean  that  you  ex- 
pect that  piety  will  go  on  with  even  current  in  the 
church,  that  there  will  be  just  as  much  sowing  and  reap- 
ing at  any  one  time  as  at  any  other,  then  you  will 
certainly  be  disappointed.  That  is  not  the  law  of  human 
nature.  That  is  not  posssible  in  the  world.  Periodicity 
pervades  the  universe.  Periodicity  controls  the  life  of 

WOFFOBD  COLLEGE  LiBR/ 


32  SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK. 

all  individuals,  shows  itself  in  the  operations  of  our 
minds.  Periodicity  necessarily  appears  in  the  spiritual 
sphere  also.  People  have  their  ups  and  downs.  They 
ought  to  strive  against  falling  low.  They  ought  not  to 
be  content  with  growing  cold.  They  ought  to  seek  to 
maintain  good  health  of  body  all  the  while,  but  it  will 
not  be  always  equally  good  ;  and  good  health  of  mind 
and  soul  all  the  time,  but  it  will  not  be  always  equally 
good.  They  ought  to  be  seeking  to  reap  a  harvest 
of  spiritual  good  among  those  around  them  all  the  while; 
but  they  will  have  seasons  which  are  rather  of  sowing, 
and  other  seasons  which  will  be  rather  of  reaping.  O  ! 
do  you  want  to  see  a  great  season  of  harvest  among 
your  own  congregation?  And  do  you  not  know, 
brethren,  as  well  as  the  preacher  can  tell  you,  what  is 
necessary  in  order  that  you  may  see  it  ?  What  are  the 
conditions  but  deepened  spiritual  life  in  your  own  indi- 
vidual souls,  stronger  spiritual  examples  set  forth  in 
your  lives,  more  earnest  spirituality  in  your  homes,  a 
truer  standard  in  your  business  and  social  relations  to 
mankind,  more  of  heartfelt  prayer  for  God's  blessing, 
and  more  untiring  and  patient  and  persevering  effort., 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  bring  others  to  seek 
their  salvation? 

III.  Spiritual  work  links  the  workers  in  unity. 
"Herein  is  the  saying  true,"  said  Jesus;  "one  soweth, 
and  another  reapeth.  Other  men  have  labored,  and  ye 
are  entered  into  their  labors."  The  prophets,  centuries 
before,  had  been  preparing  for  that  day,  and  the  fore- 
runner had  been  preparing  for  that  day,  and  the  labors 
of  Jesus  himself  in  his  early  ministry  'had  been  pre- 


SOME    LAWS    OF   SPIIUTUAL    WORK.  33 

paring  the  way,  and  now  the  disciples  could  look 
around  them  upon  fields  where,  from  the  sowing  of 
others,  there  were  opportunities  for  them  to  reap. 
"  Other  men  have  labored,  and  ye  are  entered  into 
their  labors.  One  soweth,  and  another  reapeth."  That 
is  the  law  everywhere ;  it  is  true  of  all  the  higher  work 
of  humanity, — "One  soweth,  and  another  reapeth;"  and 
our  labors  link  us  into  unity.  It  is  true  of  human 
knowledge.  How  little  has  any  one  individual  of 
mankind  been  able  to  find  out  beyond  what  the  world 
has  known  before !  Even  the  great  minds  that  stand 
like  mountain  peaks  as  we  look  back  over  the  history 
of  human  thought,  when  we  come  to  look  into  it,  do 
really  but  uplift  the  thought  that  is  all  around  them ; 
else  they  themselves  could  not  have  risen.  It  is  true 
in  practical  inventions.  We  pride  ourselves  on  the  fact 
that  ours  is  an  age  of  such  wonderful  practical  inven- 
tions ;  we  sometimes  persuade  ourselves  that  we  must 
be  the  most  intelligent  generation  of  mankind  that  ever 
lived,  past  all  comparison ;  that  no  other  race,  no  other 
century,  has  such  wonderful  things  to  boast  of.  How 
much  of  it  do  we  owe  to  the  men  of  the  past !  Every 
practical  invention  of  to-day  has  been  rendered  possible 
by  what  seemed  to  us  the  feeble  attainments  of  other 
centuries,  by  the  patient  investigation  of  the  men  who, 
in  many  cases,  have  passed  away  and  been  forgotten. 
We  stand  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  past,  and  rejoice  in 
our  possessions,  and  boast;  and  when  we  grow  con- 
ceited and  proud  of  it,  we  are  like  a  little  boy  lifted  by 
his  father's  supporting  arms,  and  standing  on  his 
father's  shoulders,  and  clapping  his  hands  above  his 
3 


34  SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL,   WORK. 

father's  head,  and  saying,  in  childish  glee,  "  I  am  taller 
than  pana!"  A  childish  conclusion,  to  be  sure.  We 
stand  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  past,  and  thereby  we 
are  lifted  up  in  all  the  higher  work  of  mankind ;  and 
we  ought  to  be  grateful  to  the  past,  and  mindful  of  our 
duty  to  the  future ;  for  the  time  will  come  when  men 
will  look  back  upon  our  inventions,  our  slow  travel, 
our  wonderful  ignorance  of  the  power  of  physical  forces 
and  the  adaptations  of  them  to  physical  advancement, 
and  smile  at  the  childishness  with  which,  in  the  fag  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  boasted  of  ourselves  and 
our  time. 

And  now  it  is  not  strange  that  this  same  thing  should 
be  true  of  spiritual  work.  When  you  undertake  to  do 
some  good  in  a  great  city  like  this,  you  might  sit  down 
and  say,  "  What  can  I  do  with  all  this  mass  of  vice  and 
sin?"  But  you  do  not  have  to  work  alone.  You  can 
associate  yourselves  with  other  workers,  in  a  church,  with 
various  organizations  of  workers,  and  thereby  re-enforce 
your  own  exertions ;  you  can  feel  that  you  are  a  working 
force,  and  you  can  feel  that  you  are  a  part  of  a  mighty 
force  of  workers,  of  your  own  name  and  other  Christian 
names.  Grace  be  with  all  them  that  love  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity,  and  are  trying  to  do  good  in  his 
name !  And  it  will  cheer  our  hearts  to  remember  that 
wide  over  the  land  and  over  the  world  are  unnumbered 
millions  of  workers  of  the  army  to  which  we  belong. 
They  tell  us  that  the  International  Sunday-school  les- 
sons which  most  of  us  study  every  Sunday,  are  actually 
studied  now  every  Lord's  day  by  at  least  ten  millions 
of  people,  all  studying  on  the  same  day  the  same  por- 


SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK.  35 

tion  of  the  Bible.  That  is  but  one  fact  to  remind  us 
that  we  are  members  of  a  great  spiritual  host,  doing  a 
great  work  in  the  world. 

And  not  merely  are  there  many  cotemporaries  with 
whom  we  are  linked  in  unity,  but  we  are  in  unity  with 
the  past;  other  men  have  labored  and  we  have  entered 
into  their  labors.  All  the  good  that  all  the  devout 
women  and  all  the  zealous  men  of  past  ages  have  been 
doing  has  come  down  to  us,  opening  the  way  for  us  to 
do  good.  And  not  merely  with  the  past,  but  we  are 
linked  with  the  laborers  of  the  future.  They  may  hear 
our  names  or  they  may  hear  them  not.  We  may  perish 
from  all  memory  of  mankind,  but  our  work  will  not 
perish,  for  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for- 
ever, and  if  we  are  engaged  in  his  work,  we  link  our- 
selves to  his  permanency  and  his  almightiness,  and  our 
work  will  go  down  to  help  the  men  who  are  to  come 
after. 

The  same  thing  is  true  here,  also,  in  the  individual 
church  ;  one  soweth  and  another  reapeth.  A  pastor 
seldom  gathers  half  as  much  fruit  from  the  seed  of  his 
own  sowing  as  he  gathers  from  the  seed  that  others  have 
sown.  And  there  will  come  some  man  here — God  grant, 
it  may  be  soon,  and  wisely,  and  well— who  will  gather 
seed  from  the  sowing  of  the  venerable  pastor  so  well  and 
worthily  beloved  in  years  ago,  seed  from  the  sowing  of 
the  energetic  pastor  of  recent  years,  and  O  my  soul,  he 
may  gather  some  harvest,  even  from  the  seed  scattered 
in  the  brief  fleeting  interim  of  this  summer.  We  put  all 
our  work  together.  We  sink  our  work  in  the  one  great 
common  work. ,  We  scatter  seed  for  God  and  for  souls, 


36  SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK. 

and  we  leave  it  to  God's  own  care  and  blessing.     One 
soweth,  and  another  reapeth. 

My  brethren,  there  is  nothing  like  Christianity 
to  individualize  mankind.  It  was  Christianity  that 
taught  us  to  appreciate  the  individuality  of  men : 
"Every  man  must  give  account  of  himself  unto 
God."  Men  were  no  longer  to  lose  themselves  in  the 
state,  as  classical  antiquity  taught  them  to  do,  but  to 
stand  out  in  their  separate  personality  and  individual 
responsibility  and  individual  rights  and  duties.  But  at 
the  same  time  much  of  what  we  can  do  that  is  best  in 
the  world  we  must  do  by  close  connection  and  interac- 
tion one  with  another.  Let  us  rejoice  to  act  through 
others.  Priscilla  andAquila!  what  a  power  they  were 
for  early  Christianity  when  they  took  that  eloquent 
young  Alexandrian  Apollos  and  taught  him  in  private 
the  way  of  God  more  perfectly !  Priscilla,  that  devout 
woman,  stood,  in  fact,  before  delighted  assemblies  in 
Corinth  and  spoke  to  them  the  perfect  way  of  God 
through  the  eloquent  man  whom  she  had  taught.  And 
how  often  does  the  Sunday-school  teacher,  who  labored 
long  and,  as  the  world  might  have  thought,  fruitlessly, 
with  her  little  naughty  boys  and  girls,  become  in  future 
times  a  great  power  for  good  in  the  world  through  one 
or  other  of  them  !  The  teacher  has  to  sink  himself  in 
his  pupils  :  never  mind  if  he  sinks  all  out  of  the  world's 
sight,  provided  he  can  make  his  mark  upon  them  and 
prepare  them  for  greater  usefulness,  can  put  into  them 
some  good  spirit,  and  send  them  forth  to  do  the  work 
which  to  him  personally  is  denied.  Here  lies  the 
great  power  of  Christian  women.  There  is  much 


SOME   LAWS   OP   SPIRITUAL   WORK.  37 

they  can  do  personally,  with  their  own  voice  and 
their  own  action,  but  there  is  more  they  can  do  by 
that  wondrous  influence  which  men  vainly  strive  to 
depict,  that  influence  over  son  and  brother  and  husband 
and  friend  whereby  all  the  strength  and  power  of  the 
man  is  softened  and  guided  and  sobered  and  made  wiser 
through  the.  blessed  influence  of  the  woman.  God  be 
thanked  that  we  can  not  only  do  good  in  our  individual 
efforts,  but  we  can  do  good  through  others!  Let  us 
cultivate  this,  let  us  delight  in  this,  that  we  can  labor 
through  others.  Whenever  your  pastor  may  stand 
before  the  gathered  assembly  he  can  speak  with  more 
power  because  of  you,  if  you  do  your  duty  to  him  and 
through  him. 

May  I  mention  some  of  the  ways  in  which  we  may 
help  our  pastor  ?  I  speak  as  one  who  at  home  sits  for 
the  most  part,  a  private  member  of  the  church  in  the 
pew,  toiling  all  the  week,  and  often  unable  to  preach  on 
Sunday,  and  yet  as  one  whose  heart  is  all  in  sympathy 
with  the  pastor's  heart,  and  perhaps  a  little  better  able 
than  common  to  sympathize  with  both  sides.  We  can 
help  him  to  draw  a  congregation.  You  know  we 
always  say  now-a-days,  that  it  is  very  important  to  get 
a  man  who  can  draw  a  congregation.  So  it  is,  though  it 
is  very  important  to  cbnsider  what  he  draws  them  there 
for,  and  what  he  does  with  them  after  he  gets  them 
there ;  and  sometimes  it  does  seem  to  me  that  it  would 
be  better  for  some  people  to  remain  not  drawn  than  to 
be  drawn  merely  to  hear  and  to  witness  that  which  does 
them  harm  rather  than  good.  But  we  do  want  a  man 
who  can  draw  a  congregation  ;  and  we  can  help  our 


38  SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK. 

past  »r  to  draw  a  congregation.  How  ?  "Well,  by  taking 
care  that  we  are  always  drawn  ourselves,  by  occupying 
our  own  place,  sometimes  when  we  do  not  feel  like  it, 
on  Sunday  evening ;  because  it  is  our  duty  to  our  pas- 
tor, our  duty  to  the  congregation,  and  our  duty  to  the 
world.  And  we  can  do  something  to  bring  others.  I 
recall  a  story,  that  a  few  years  after  the  war  (which  is 
the  great  chronological  epoch  in  a  large  part  of  our 
country),  at  the  White  Sulphur  Springs,  in  Virginia, 
was  a  venerable  man  at  whom  all  the  people  looked 
with  profound  admiration,  whose  name  was  Robert  E. 
Lee.  He  was  a  devout  Episcopalian.  One  day  a  Pres- 
byterian minister  came  to  preach  in  the  ball-room, 
according  to  custom,  and  he  told  me  this  story.  He 
noticed  that  General  Lee,  who  was  a  very  particular 
man  about  all  the  proprieties  of  life,  came  in  late,  and 
he  thought  it  was  rather  strange.  He  learned  after- 
wards that  the  General  had  waited  until  all  the  people 
who  were  likely  to  attend  the  service  had  entered  the 
room,  and  then  he  walked  very  quietly  around  in  the 
corridors  and  parlors,  and  out  under  the  trees,  and 
wherever  he  saw  a  man  or  two  standing  he  would  go  up 
and  say  gently  :  "  We  are  going  to  have  divine  service 
this  morning  in  the  ball-room  ;  won't  you  come  ? " 
And  they  all  went.  To  me  it  was  very  touching  that 
that  grand  old  man,  whose  name  was  known  all  over 
the  world  and  before  whom  all  the  people  wanted  to 
bow,  should  so  quietly  go  around,  and  for  a  minister  of 
another  denomination  also,  and  persuade  them  to  go. 
Should  not  we  take  means  to  help  our  pastor  to  draw  a 
congregation  ?  And  when  he  begins  to  preach,  cannot 


SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK.  39 

we  help  him  to  preach?  Demosthenes  is  reported  to 
have  said  (and  he  ought  to  have  known  something  about 
it),  that  eloquence  lies  as  much  in  the  ear  as  in  the 
tongue.  Everybody  who  can  speak  effectively  knows 
that  the  power  of  speaking  depends  very  largely  upon 
the  way  it  is  heard,  upon  the  sympathy  which  one  suc- 
ceeds in  gaining  from  those  he  addresses.  If  I  were 
asked  what  is  the  first  thing  in  effective  preaching,  I 
should  say,  sympathy  ;  and  what  is  the  second  thing,  I 
should  say,  sympathy ;  and  what  is  the  third  thing, 
sympathy.  We  should  give  our  pastor  sympathy  when 
he  preaches.  Sometimes  one  good  listener  can  make  a 
good  sermon  ;  but  ah  !  sometimes  one  listener  who  does 
not  care  much  about  the  gospel  can  put  the  sermon 
all  out  of  harmony.  The  soul  of  a  man  who  can  speak 
effectively  is  a  very  sensitive  soul,  easily  repelled  and 
chilled  by  what  is  unfavorable,  and  easily  helped  by  the 
manifestation  of  simple  and  unpretentious  sympathy. 

How  can  we  help  our  pastor  ?  We  can  help  him  by 
talking  about  what  he  says ;  not  talking  about  the  per- 
formance and  about  the  performer,  and  all  that,  which, 
if  it  is  appropriate  anywhere,  is  surely  all  inappropriate 
when  we  turn  away  from  the  solemn  worship  of  God, 
and  from  listening  to  sermons  intended  to  do  us  good — 
but  talking  about  the  thoughts  that  he  has  given  us,  re- 
calling them  sometimes  to  one  who  has  heard  them  like 
ourselves,  repeating  them  sometimes  to  some  one  who 
has  not  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  them.  Thus 
may  we  multiply  whatever  good  thoughts  the  preacher 
is  able  to  present,  and  keep  them  alive  in  our  own 
minds  and  the  minds  of  fellow-Christians.  Will  you 


40  SOME    LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL,   WORK. 

pardon  an  illustration  here,  even  if  it  be  a  personal  one? 
Last  year  in  a  city  in  Texas,  I  was  told  of  the  desire  on 
the  part  of  a  lady  for  conversation,  and  when  we  met 
by  arrangement  she  came  in  widow's  weeds,  with  a  little 
boy  of  ten  or  twelve  years  old,  and  began  to  tell  this 
story :  Her  husband  was  once  a  student  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  when  the  person  she  was  talking  to 
was  the  chaplain  there,  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago. 
He  was  of  a  Presbyterian  family  from  Alabama,  and 
said  he  never  got  acquainted  with  the  chaplain,  for  the 
students  were  numerous,  but  that  he  heard  the  preach- 
ing a  great  deal,  and  in  consequence  of  it,  by  God's 
blessing  upon  it,  he  was  led  to  take  hold  as  a  Christian, 
and  went  home  and  joined  the  church  of  his  parents. 
After  the  war  he  married  this  lady,  and  a  few  years  ago 
he  passed  away.  She  said  he  was  in  the  habit,  before 
she  knew  him,  she  learned,  of  talking  often  in  the 
family  about  things  he  used  to  hear  the  preacher  say  ; 
the  preacher's  words  had  gotten  to  be  household  words 
in  the  family.  And  then  when  they  were  married  he 
taught  some  of  them  to  her,  and  was  often  repeating 
things  he  used  to  hear  the  preacher  say.  Since  he  died 
she  had  been  teaching  them  to  the  little  boy — the 
preacher's  words.  The  heart  of  the  preacher  might  well 
melt  in  his  bosom  at  the  story.  To  think  -that  your 
poor  words,  which  you  yourself  had  wholly  forgotten, 
which  you  could  never  have  imagined  had  vitality 
enough  for  that,  had  been  repeated  among  strangers, 
had  been  repeated  by  the  young  man  to  his  mother,  re- 
peated by  the  young  widow  to  the  child — your  poor 
words,  thus  mighty  because  they  were  God's  truth  you 


SOME   LAWS  OF  SPIRITUAL  WORK.  41 

were  trying  to  speak  and  because  you  had  humbly 
sought  God's  blessing !  And  through  all  the  years  it 
went  on,  and  the  man  knew  not,  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  of  all  that  story.  Ah,  we  never 
know  when  we  are  doing  good.  Sometimes  we  may 
think  we  are  going  to  do  great  things,  and  so  far  as  can 
ever  be  ascertained,  we  do  nothing;  and  sometimes  when 
we  think  we  have  done  nothing,  yet,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  some  truth  has  been  lodged  in  a  mind  here  and 
there,  to  bear  fruit  after  many  days. 

How  can  we  help  our  pastor  ?  We  can  furnish  him 
illustrations.  Mr.  Spurgeon  tells  us  that  he  requests  his 
teachers,  and  his  wife,  and  various  other  friends  to  hunt 
up  illustrations  for  him.  He  asks  them,  whenever  they 
have  come  across  anything  in  reading  or  in  conversation 
that  strikes  them  as  good,  to  write  it  down  and  let  him 
have  it,  and  whenever  he  sees  a  fit  opportunity  he 
makes  a  point  of  it.  We  can  all  furnish  our  pastors 
with  illustrations.  In  that  very  way,  perhaps,  we  might 
give  a  preacher  many  things  that  would  be  useful  to 
him.  In  other  ways  we  can  all  do  so.  Ah,  when  the 
preacher  tells  how  it  ought  to  be,  if  you  can  sometimes 
humbly  testify,  in  the  next  meeting  on  Tuesday  or 
Friday  evening,  how  it  has  been  in  your  experience, 
you  are  illustrating  for  the  preacher.  When  the 
preacher  tells  what  Christianity  can  do  for  people,  if 
your  life  illustrates  it  for  all  around,  there  is  a  power 
that  no  speech  can  ever  have.  There  remains  a  fourth 
law  of  spiritual  work. 

IV.  Spiritual  work  has  rich  rewards  :  "And  he  thai 
reapeth  receiveth  wages,"  saith  Jesus,  "  and  gathereth 


42  SOME    LAWS    OF   SPIRITUAL    WORK.     . 

fruit  unto  life  eternal."  Spiritual  work  has  rich  re- 
wards. It  has  the  reward  of  success.  It  is  not  in  vain 
to  try  to  do  good  to  the  souls  of  men  through  the  truth 
of  God  and  seeking  his  grace.  Sometimes  you  may  feel 
as  if  you  were  standing  at  the  foot  of  a  precipice  a 
thousand  feet  high  and  trying  to  spring  to  its  summit, 
and  were  all  powerless.  Sometimes  you  may  feel  as  if 
you  had  flung  your  words  against  a  stone  wall  and  made 
no  impression  at  all.  Sometimes  you  may  go  away  all 
ashamed  of  what  you  have  said  in  public  or  in  private. 
But  there  was  never  a  word  spoken  that  uttered  God's 
truth  and  sought  God's  blessing,  that  was  spoken  in 
vain.  Somehow  it  does  good  to  somebody,  it  does  good 
at  some  time  or  other ;  it  shall  be  known  in  earth  or  in 
heaven  that  it  did  do  good.  Comfort  your  hearts  with 
these  words  :  It  is  not  in  vain  to  try  to  do  good.  You 
may  say,  "  I  have  not  the  lips  of  the  eloquent,  the 
tongue  of  the  learned,  how  can  I  talk?"  There  is  many 
a  minister  who  is  eloquent  and  has  preached  to  gathered 
congregations,  who  could  tell  you  that  he  knows  of 
many  more  instances  in  which  his  private  words  have 
been  blest  to  individuals  than  he  knows  of  in  his  public 
discourses.  I  knew  of  a  girl  who  had  been  so  afflicted 
that  she  could  not  leave  her  couch  for  years,  who  had  to 
be  lifted  constantly — poor,  helpless  creature! — but  who 
would  talk  to  those  who  came  into  her  room  about  her 
joy  in  God,  and  would  persuade  them  to  seek  the  con- 
solations of  the  gospel,  and  many  were  benefited  and 
would  bring  their  friends  to  her,  till  after  a  while  they 
brought  them  from  adjoining  counties,  that  she,  the 
poor,  helpless  girl,  might  influence  them  ;  at  length  she 


SOME   LAWS   OF    SPIRITUAL,    WORK.  43 

even  began  to  write  letters  to  people  far  away,  and  that 
girl's  sick-bed  became  a  centre  of  blessing  to  people 
throughout  a  whole  region.  We  talk  about  doing  noth- 
ing in  the  world.  Ah,  if  our  hearts  were  in  it !  we  do 
not  know  what  we  can  do.  That  tiger  in  the  cage  has 
been  there  since  he  was  a  baby  tiger,  and  does  not  know 
that  he  could  burst  those  bars  if  he  were  but  to  exert 
his  strength.  O  the  untried  strength  in  all  our 
churches,  and  the  good  that  the  people  could  do  if  we 
would  only  try,  and  keep  trying,  and  pray  for  God's 
blessing.  tMy  friends,  you  cannot  save  your  soul 
as  a  solitary,  and  you  ought  not  to  be  content  to  go 
alone  into  the  paradise  of  God.  We  shall  best  promote 
our  own  piety  when  we  are  trying  to  save  others.  We 
shall  be  most  helpful  to  ourselves  when  we  are  most 
helpful  to  those  around  us.  Many  of  you  have  found 
it  so ;  and  all  of  you  may  find  it  so,  again  and  again, 
with  repetitions  that  shall  pass  all  human  telling.  "  For 
he  that  watereth  shall  be  watered  also  again." 

Spiritual  work  shall  also  be  rewarded  in  the  Lord  of  the 
harvest's  commendation  and  welcome.  Ah,  he. will  know 
which  was  the  sowing  and  which  was  the  reaping.  The 
world  may  not  know ;  we  may  never  hear ;  but  4&  will 
know  which  was  the  sowing  and  which  was  the  reaping, 
and  who  jaded  to  do  good  and  thought  he  had  not  done 
it,  and  who  was  sad  and  bowed  down  with  the  thought 
of  being  utterly  unable  to  be  useful,  and  yet  was  useful. 
He  will  know,  he  will  reward  even  the  desire  of  the 
heart,  which  there  was  no  opportunity  to  carry  out.  lie 
will  reward  the  emotion  that  trembled  on  the  lip  and 
could  find  no  utterance.  He  will  reward  David  for 


44  SOME   LAWS   OF   SPIRITUAL   WORK. 

wanting  to  build  the  temple  as  we"  as  Solomon  for 
building  it.  He  will  reward  all  that  we  do,  and  all  that 
we  try  to  do,  and  all  that  we  wish  to  do.  O  blessed 
God  !  he  will  be  your  reward  and  mine,  forever  and 
forever. 


III. 

THE  HABIT  OF  THANKFULNESS. 

In  everything  give  thanks. — 1  Thess.  5 :  18. 

WE  hear  a  great  deal  said  about  habits.  But  it  nearly 
always  means  bad  habits.  Why  should  we  not 
think  and  speak  much  about  good  habits  ?  They  are  as 
real,  and  almost  as  great,  a  power  for  good  as  bad  habits 
are  for  evil.  We  do  our  work  largely  by  the  aid  of 
habit.  How  much  this  helps  one  in  playing  on  an  in- 
strument, or  writing  on  a  type-writer.  Through  many 
a  familiar  conjunction  of  notes  or  of  letters  the  fingers 
fly  with  the  very  smallest  amount  of  attention  and  ex- 
ertion. Many  a  man  who  is  growing  old  will  every  day 
get  through  an  amount  of  work  that  surprises  his 
friends,  and  it  is  possible  because  he  works  in  the  lines 
of  lifelong  habit.  Besides,  the  only  possible  way  to 
keep  out  bad  habits  is  to  form  good  habits.  By  a  ne- 
cessity of  our  nature,  whatever  is  frequently  and  at  all 
regularly  done  becomes  habitual.  If  a  man  has  been 
the  slave  of  evil  habits,  and  wishes  to  be  permanently 
free,  he  must  proceed  by  systematic  and  persevering  ef- 
fort to  establish  corresponding  good  habits.  The  edu- 
cation of  our  children,  both  at  school  and  at  home,  the 
self-education  of  our  own  early  life,  consists  mainly  in 
the  formation  of  intellectual  and  moral  habits.  I  think 
we  ought  to  talk  more  upon  this  subject,  in  public  and 

45 


46  THE   HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS. 

in  private — upon  the  power  and  blessing  of  good  hab- 
its. And  the  theme  of  this  discourse  will  be,  the  habit 
of  thankfulness  to  God. 

I.  Consider  the  value  of  the  habit  of  thankfulness. 

It  tends  to  quell  repining.  We  are  all  prone,  espe- 
cially in  certain  moods,  to  complain  of  our  lot.  Every 
one  of  us  has  at  some  time  or  other  imagined,  and  per- 
haps declared,  that  he  has  a  particularly  hard  time  in 
this  world.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  other  moods  we  are 
heartily  ashamed  of  ourselves  for  such  repining.  But  how 
prevent  its  recurrence?  A  most  valuable  help  will  be 
the  habit  of  thankfulness  to  God.  Then  if  a  fretful,  re- 
pining spirit  begins  to  arise,  just  in  the  middle,  perhaps, 
of  some  complaining  sentence,  we  shall  suddenly  change 
to  an  expression  of  thankfulness — and  perhaps  end  with 
laughing  at  ourselves  for  the  folly  of  such  repining. 

It  tends  to  enhance  enjoyment.  We  all  know  that 
when  we  receive  a  gift,  with  any  true  sentiment  and 
any  suitable  expression  of  thankfulness,  the  reaction  of 
gratitude  augments  our  gratification. 

It  serves  to  soothe  distress.  Persons  who  are  greatly 
afflicted,  and  not  wont  to  be  thankful,  sometimes  find  the 
memory  of  past  joys  only  an  aggravation  of  present  sor- 
row. Far  otherwise  with  one  who  has  learned  to  be 
habitually  thankful.  For  him  the  recollection  of  hap- 
pier hours  is  still  a  comfort. 

It  helps  to  allay  anxiety.  Did  you  ever  notice  what 
the  apostle  says  to  the  Philippians  ?  "  In  nothing  be 
anxious ;  but  in  everything  by  prayer  and  supplication 
with  thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God.  And  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  under- 


THE   HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS.  47 

standing,  shall  guard  your  hearts  and  your  thoughts  in 
Christ  Jesus."  Notice  carefully  that  we  are  to  prevent 
anxiety  by  prayer  as  to  the  future  with  thanksgiving  for 
the  past. 

It  cannot  fail  to  deepen  penitence.  "  The  goodness  of 
God  leadeth  thee  to  repentance."  When  we  are  fully  in 
the  habit  of  thankfully  observing  and  recalling  the  lov- 
ing kindnesses  and  tender  mercies  of  our  heavenly  Fa- 
ther, this  will  make  us  perceive  more  clearly,  and  lament 
more  earnestly,  the  evil  of  sin  against  him ;  and  what 
is  more,  this  will  strengthen  us  to  turn  from  our  sins  to 
his  blessed  service. 

It  has  as  one  necessary  effect  to  brighten  hope.  "  I 
love  to  think  on  mercies  past,  And  future  good  implore," 
is  a  very  natural  conjunction  of  ideas.  If  we  have  been 
wont  to  set  up  Ebenezers  upon  our  path  of  life,  then 
every  glance  backward  along  these  mile-stones  of  God's 
mercy  will  help  us  to  look  forward  with  more  of  humble 
hope. 

It  serves  to  strengthen  for  endurance  and  exertien. 
We  all  know  how  much  more  easily  and  effectively  they 
work  who  work  cheerfully  ;  and  the  very  nutriment  of 
cheerfulness  is  found  in  thankfulness  as  to  the  past  and 
hope  as  to  the  future. 

If  this  habit  of  thankfulness  to  God  is  so  valuable,  it 
is  certainly  worth  our  while  to  consider, 

II.  Occasions  of  habitual  thankfulness.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  these  are  numerous  and  various  beyond  de- 
scription. But  we  may  find  profit  in  summing  them 
all  up  under  two  heads. 

1.  We  should  be  thankful  to  God  for  everything 


48  THE    HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS. 

that  is  pleasant.  No  one  will  dispute  that  proposition 
in  theory,  whatever  may  be  our  practice.  The  apostle 
James  tells  us  that  "  every  good  gift  and  every  perfect 
boon  is  from  above,  coming  down  from  the  Father  of 
lights."  We  have  so  much  occasion  to  speak  about  the 
religious  benefits  of  affliction,  to  dwell  on  the  blessed 
consolations  of  Christian  piety  amid  the  sorrows  of  life, 
that  we  are  in  danger  of  overlooking  the  other  side. 
It  is  a  religious  duty  to  enjoy  to  the  utmost  every  right- 
ful pleasure  of  earthly  existence.  He  who  gave  us 
these  bodies,  so  "fearfully  and  wonderfully  made," 
who  created  us  in  his  own  image,  with  spirits  of  such 
keen  appetency  and  longing  aspiration,  desires  that  we 
should  find  life  a  pleasure.  As  already  intimated,  we 
work  best  at  what  we  enjoy.  It  is  highly  important 
that  the  young  should  enjoy  what  they  are  studying ; 
and  while  this  may,  to  some  extent,  be  accomplished  by 
giving  them  studies  they  fancy,  it  is  also  possible  that 
by  well  guided  efforts  they  should  learn  to  relish  studies 
to  which  they  were  at  first  disinclined.  I  sometimes 
hear  young  married  people  say,  "  We  are  going  to 
housekeeping,  and  then  we  can  have  what  we  like." 
I  sometimes  feel  at  liberty  to  reply,  "  Yes,  to  a  certain 
extent  you  may ;  but  what  is  far  more  important  and 
interesting,  you  will  be  apt  to  like  what  you  have."  To 
have  what  we  like  is  for  the  most  part  an  impossible 
dream  of  human  life  ;  to  like  what  we  have  is  a  possi- 
bility,.and  not  only  a  duty,  but  a  high  privilege. 

2.  We  should  be  thankful  to  God  for  everything  that 
is  painful.  Well,  that  may  seem  to  be  stating  the  mat- 
ter too  strongly.  We  can  help  ourselves  by  noticing 


THE   HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS.  49 

that  whatever  may  be  possible  iii  that  direction,  the 
apostle  has  not  in  the  text  enjoined  quite  so  much  as 
the  phrase  just  used  would  propose.  He  does  not  say, 
"for  everything  give  thanks,"  though  that  might  be  en- 
joined ;  he  says,  "  in  everything  give  thanks."  Now  that, 
surely,  need  not  seem  impossible. 

We  may  always  be  thankful  that  the  situation  is  no 
worse.  The  old  negro's  philosophy  was  wise  and  good  : 
"  Bress  de  Lord,  'taint  no  wuss."  We  always  deserve 
that  it  should  be  worse,  no  matter  how  sorrowful  may 
be  the  actual  situation.  We  can  never  allow  ourselves 
to  question  that  with  some  persons  it  has  been  worse. 
Let  us  always  bless  the  Lord,  that  but  for  his  special 
mercies  it  would  be  worse  with  us  to-day.  I  recall  an 
unpublished  anecdote  of  President  Madison,  told  to  me 
in  the  region  where  he  lived  and  died.  It  may  be  men- 
tioned, by  the  way,  that  Mr.  Madison  was  a  v  rarely  ex- 
cellent and  blameless  man.  His  biographer  told  me 
that,  notwithstanding  all  the  political  conflicts  of  a  life 
so  long  and  so  distinguished,  he  found  no  indication 
that  Mr.  Madison's  private  character  had  ever  been  in 
the  slightest  degree  assailed — an  example  which  it 
would  perhaps  be  difficult  to  parallel.  In  his  old  age 
the  venerable  ex-President  suffered  from  many  diseases, 
took  a  variety  of  medicines  and  contrived  to  live  not- 
withstanding. An  old  friend  from  the  adjoining  county 
of  Albemarle  sent  him  a  box  of  vegetable  pills  of  his 
own  production,  and  begged  to  be  informed  whether 
they  did  not  help  him.  In  due  time  came  back  one  of 
those  carefully-written  and  often  felicitous  notes  for 
which  Mr.  Madison  and  Mr.  Jefferson  were  both 
4 


50  THE   HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS. 

famous,  to  somewhat  the  following  effect :  "  My  dear 
friend.  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the  box  of  pills. 
I  have  taken  them  all ;  and  while  I  cannot  say  that  I 
am  better  since  taking  them,  it  is  quite  possible  that  I 
might  have  been  worse  if  I  had  not  taken  them,  and  so 
I  beg  you  to  accept  my  sincere  acknowledgments." 
Really,  my  friends,  this  is  not  a  mere  pleasantry. 
There  is  always  something,  known  or  unknown,  but  for 
which  our  condition  might  have  been  worse,  and  at  the 
very  least,  that  something  constitutes  an  occasion  for 
gratitude.  Whatever  we  may  have  lost,  there  is  always 
something  left. 

As  already  observed,  our  present  sufferings  may  well 
set  in  brighter  relief  the  remembered  happiness  of  other 
days.  And  though  men  are  prone  to  make  this  an  oc- 
casion of  repining,  yet  it  ought  to  be  an  occasion  of 
thankfulness.  Not  long  ago  a  young  husband  spoke  to 
me,  with  bitter  sorrow,  about  the  death  of  his  wife.  I 
suggested  that  he  might  well  be  thankful  for  having 
lived  several  happy  years  in  the  most  intimate  compan- 
ionship with  one  so  lovely ;  and  that  in  coming  years, 
when  the  blessed  alchemy  of  memory  should  make  her 
character  seem  all-perfect  in  his  eyes,  he  might  well  find 
pathetic  and  ineffable  pleasure  in  the  memory  of  that 
early  time.  We  all  know  how  to  repeat,  amid  sorrow- 
ful recollections,  those  words  of  Tennyson,  "  O,  death 
in  life,  the  days  that  are  no  more  !  "  But  it  is  surely 
possible  so  to  cherish  blessed  and  inspiring  memories 
as  to  invert  the  line,  and  say,  "  O,  life  in  d^ath,  the  days 
that  are  no  more !  " 

There  is  a  still  more  important  view  of  this  matter. 


THE   HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS.  51 

It  has  become  a  blessed  commonplace  of  Christian  phil- 
osophy that  our  sufferings  may,  through  the  grace  of 
God,  be  the  means  of  improving  our  character.  Such 
a  result  is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  course.  Sufferings 
may  be  so  borne,  with  such  bitter  repining  and  selfish 
brooding,  as  greatly  to  damage  character.  But  the 
Scriptures  assure  us  that  devout  souls  may  regard  afflic- 
tion as  but  a  loving  Father's  chastisement,  meant  for 
their  highest  good.  In  all  the  ages  there  has  never 
been  a  pious  life  that  did  not  share  this  experience.  To 
be  exempt  from  it  would,  as  the  Bible  expressly  de- 
clares, give  clear  proof  that  we  are  not  children  of  God 
at  all.  Many  of  us  could  testify  to-day,  if  it  were 
appropriate,  that  the  sorrows  of  life  have  by  God's 
blessing  done  us  good.  All  of  us  have  occasion  to  lay 
more  thoroughly  to  heart  the  lessons  of  affliction.  And 
oh  !  if  we  do  ever  climb  the  shining  hills  of  glory,  and 
look  back  with  clearer  vision  upon  the  strangely  min- 
gled joys  and  sorrows  of  this  earthly  life,  then  how 
deeply  grateful  we  shall  be  for  those  very  afflictions, 
which  at  the  time  we  find  it  so  hard  to  endure.  If  we 
believe  this  to  be  true,  and  it  is  a  belief  clearly  founded 
on  Scripture,  then  can  we  not  contrive,  even  amid  the  se- 
verest sufferings,  to  be  thankful  for  the  lessons  of  sor- 
row, for  the  benefits  of  affliction  ? 

Remember,  too,  how  our  seasons  of  affliction  make 
real  to  us  the  blessed  thought  of  Divine  compassion  and 
sympathy.  When  you  look  with  parental  anguish  upon 
your  own  suffering  child,  then  you  know,  as  never  be- 
fore, the  meaning  of  those  words,  "  Like  as  a  father 
pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 


52  THE    HABIT   OF   THANKFfLNI :^>. 

him."  When  you  find  the  trials  of  life  hard  to  bear, 
then  it  becomes  unspeakably  sweet  to  remember  that 
our  high  priest  can  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our 
infirmities,  having  been  "  in  all  points  tempted  like  as 
we  are,  yet  without  sin."  Thus  affliction  brings  to  the 
devout  mind  blessed  views  of  the  Divine  character 
which  otherwise  we  should  never  fully  gain. 

"  Then  sorrow,  touched  by  thee,  grows  bright 

With  more  than  rapture's  ray  ; 
As  darkness  shows  us  worlds  of  light 
We  never  saw  by  day." 

Besides  all  this,  remember  that  the  sufferings  of  this 
present  life  will  but  enhance,  by  their  contrast,  the 
blessed  exemptions  of  the  life  to  come.  A  thousand 
times  have  I  remembered  the  text  of  my  first  funeral 
sermon,  "  And  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither 
sorrow  nor  crying ;  neither  shall  there  be  any  more 
pain  :  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away."  These 
are  the  present  things  now — all  around  us  and  within 
us ;  but  the  time  is  coming  when  they  will  be  the 
former  things,  quite  passed  away.  You  know  the  use 
which  skilful  composers  make  of  discords  in  music. 
The  free  use  of  them  is  among  the  characteristics  of 
Wagner  ;  but  they  are  often  found  in  our  simplest  tunes 
for  public  worship.  The  jarring  discord  is  solved,  and 
makes  more  sweet  the  harmony  into  which  it  passes. 
And  oh  !  the  time  is  coming  when  all  the  pains  and 
pangs  of  this  present  life  will  seem  to  have  been  only 
"  a  brief  discordant  prelude  to  an  everlasting  harmony." 

My  friends,  are  you  optimists  or  pessimists?     Let  me 


THE   HABIT    OF    THANKFULNESS.  53 

explain  to  the  children  what  those  words  mean.  The 
Latiu  word  optimus  means  best,  and  pessimus  means 
Avorst.  So  an  Optimist  is  one  who  maintains  that  this 
is  the  best  possible  world  ;  and  a  Pessimist,  that  it  is  tke 
worst  possible  world.  Now  which  are  you,  an  optimist 
or  a  pessimist  ?  For  my  part,  I  am  neither.  Surely 
no  man  can  really  imagine  that  this  is  the  best  possible 
world,  save  in  some  brief  moment  of  dreamy  forgetful- 
ness.  And  as  to  thinking  it  the  worst  possible  world, 
— well,  a  person  would  have  to  be  uncommonly  well  off 
who  could  afford  to  think  that.  I  read,  some  time  ago, 
a  biography  of  Arthur  Schopenhauer,  the  celebrated 
German  pessimist.  I  was  not  surprised  to  find  that  his 
father  left  him  an  independent  fortune,  and  he  had  no 
painful  bodily  diseases.  He  could  afford  to  spend  his 
time  in  trying  to  persuade  everybody  to  be  miserable, 
in  building  pessimistic  theories.  But  most  of  us  have 
so  many  real  toils  and  troubles  that  we  are  instinctively 
driven  to  search  for  the  bright  side  of  life,  to  seek  all 
possible  consolation  and  cheer.  Agassiz  had  "  no  time 
to  make  money;"  and  few  of  us  will  ever  have  time  to 
be  pessimists..  No,  we  cannot  begin  to  say  with  Pope, 
"  Whatever  is,  is  right ;"  nor  yet  to  reverse  it,  "  What- 
ever is,  is  wrong."  But  whether  poetical  or  not,  it  will 
be  a  very  true  and  valuable  saying  if  we  read,  "  What- 
ever is,  you  must  make  the  best  of  it."  And  just  in 
proportion  as  we  strive  to  make  the  best  of  everything, 
we  shall  find  it  practicable  to  carry  out  the  apostle's  in- 
junction, "  In  everything  give  thanks." 

The  greatest  of  early  Christian  preachers,  perhaps  the 
greatest  in  all  Christian  history,  was  Chrysostom.     His 


54  THE    HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS. 

motto  was,  "  Glory  to  God  for  all  things."  He  proba- 
bly derived  it  from  the  story  of  Job,  which  was  hie  fa- 
vorite subject  of  devout  meditation,  and  is  mentioned  in 
a  large  proportion  of  his  eloquent  sermons.  You  might 
fancy  that  it  was  easy  for  the  young  man  to  say,  "  Glory 
to  God  for  all  things,"  when  he  was  growing  up  in  An- 
tioch,  the  idol  of  his  widowed  mother,  with  ample  means, 
and  the  finest  instructors  of  the  age*  You  might  think 
it  easy  to  say  this  when  he  was  a  famous  preacher,  in 
Antiocb,  and  afterwards  in  Constantinople,  when  ten 
thousand  people  crowded  the  great  churches  to  hear  him; 
though  such  a  preacher  could  not  fail  to  suffer  profound- 
ly through  compassion  for  the  perishing,  and  anxious  ef- 
fort to  reclaim  the  wandering,  and  sympathy  for  all  the 
distressed,  as  well  as  with  many  a  pang  of  grief  and 
shame  that  he  did  not  preach  better.  But  Chrysostom 
continued  to  say  this,  when  the  Court  at  Constantinople 
turned  against  him,  when  the  wicked  Empress  became 
his  enemy,  and  compassed  his  banishment  again  and 
again.  When  his  friends  would  go  to  far  Armenia  and 
visit  him  in  exile,  he  would  say  to  them,  "  Glory  to  God 
for  all  things."  When  he  was  sent  to  more  distant  and 
inhospitable  regions,  so  as  to  be  out  of  reach  of  such  pious 
^siting,  his  letters  were  apt  to  end,  "  Glory  to  God  for 
all  things."  And  when  the  soldiers  were  dragging  him 
through  winter  snows,  and,  utterly  worn  out,  he  begged 
to  be  taken  into  a  little  way-side  church  that  he  might 
die,  his  last  words,  as  he  lay  on  the  cold  stone  floor,  were, 
"  Glory  to  God  for  all  things." 

III.    How  may  the  habit  of  thankfulness  be  formed 
and  maintained?    Well,  how  do  we  form  other  habits? 


THE   HABIT   OF   THANKFULNESS.  55 

If  you  wish  to  establish  the  habit  of  doing  a  certain  thing 
you  take  pains  to  do  that  thing,  upon  every  possible  oc- 
casion, and  to  avoid  everything  inconsistent  therewith. 
Now,  then,  if  you  wish  to  form  the  habit  of  thankful- 
ness, just  begin  by  being  thankful — not  next  year,  but 
to-night ;  not  for  some  great  event  or  experience,  but  for 
whatever  has  just  occurred,  whatever  has  been  pleasant, 
yes,  and  we  did  say,  for  whatever  has  been  painful.  You 
certainly  can  find  some  special  occasion  for  thanksgiving 
this  very  night.  And  then  go  on  searching  for  matter 
of  gratitude,  and  just  continuing  to  be  thankful,  hour 
by  hour,  day  by  day.  Thus  the  habit  will  be  formed,  by 
a  very  law  of  our  nature. 

But  remember  that  good  habits  cannot  be  maintained 
without  attention.  They  require  a  certain  self-control,  a 
studious  self-constraint.  Is  not  the  habit  of  thankful- 
ness worth  taking  pains  to  maintain  ?  The  older  per- 
sons present  remember  Ole  Bull,  the  celebrated  violinist. 
I  once  dined  in  company  with  him,  and  in  an  hour's 
conversation  across  the  table  found  him  a  man  of  gener- 
ous soul,  full  of  noble  impulses  and  beautiful  enthusi- 
asms, and  rich  with  the  experience  of  wide  travel.  And 
I  was  greatly  interested  in  a  remark  of  his  which  is 
recorded  in  the  recent  biography :  "  When  I  stop  prac- 
ticing one  day,  I  see  the  difference ;  when  I  stop  two 
days,  my  friends  see  the  difference ;  when  I  stop  a  week, 
everybody  sees  the  difference."  Here  was  a  man  who 
had  cultivated  a  wonderful  natural  gift,  by  lifelong  la- 
bor, until,  as  a  performer  upon  the  finest  of  instruments, 
he  was  probably  the  foremost  man  of  his  time  ~T  and  yet 
he  could  not  afford  to  stop  practicing  for  a  single  week, 


56  THE    HABIT    OF    THANKFULNESS. 

or  even  for  a  single  day.  "  They  do  it  for  an  earthly 
crown;  but  we  for  a  heavenly."  Christian  brethren, 
shall  we  shrink  from  incessant  vigilance  and  perpetual 
eif'ort  to  keep  up  the  habit  of  thankfulness  to  God  ? 

I  see  many  young  persons  present  this  evening.  Will 
not  some  of  you  at  once  begin  the  thoughtful  exercise  of 
continual  thankfulness  ?  Will  you  not^think  over  it, 
pray  over  it,  labor  to  establish  and  maintain  so  beautiful 
and  blessed  a  habit?  Ah,  what  a  help  it  will  be  to  you 
amid  all  the  struggles  of  youth  and  all  the  sorrows  of 
age !  And  in  far-coming  years,  when  you  are  gray,  when 
the  preacher  of  this  hour  has  long  been  forgotten,  let  us 
hope  that  you  will  still  be  gladly  recommending  to  the 
young  around  you  the  Habit  of  Thankfulness. 


IV. 

ASK  AND  IT  SHALL  BE  GIVEN  YOU. 

Ask  and  it  shall  be  given  you. — Matthew  vii.  7. 

ONE  thing  is  certain,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  believed 
in  prayer.  It  is  no  new  thing  to  find  some  per- 
sons who  question  the  reality  of  prayer.  There  have 
always  been  such  persons;  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
believed  in  it.  He  showed  his  belief  by  often  teaching 
us  that  we  ought  to  pray,  by  assuring  us  that  prayer 
will  be  heard,  and  by  praying  much  himself.  When  a 
person,  profoundly  sincere  and  highly  intelligent,  fre- 
quently urges  others  to  do  a  certain  thing,  and  fre- 
quently does  it  himself,  we  are  sure  that  he  believes  in 
it;  so,  whenever  a  man  undertakes  to  say  that  prayer 
is  not  a  reality,  it  ought  to  be  distinctly  borne  in  mind 
that  he  flings  away  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that 
he  arrays  himself  openly  and  hopelessly  against  the 
whole  genius  of  the  Christian  religion,  against  the 
plainest  teachings  and  constant  practice  of  its  founder. 
We  ought  always  to  see  where  we  are  and  to  see  what 
is  the  meaning  of  this  or  that  position. 

I  do  not  know  whether  it  is  worth  while,  in  passing, 
even  for  a  moment,  to  recall  the  sensation  of  a  few 
years  ago  on  this  subject,  and  remark  upon  it.  I  sup- 
pose that  the  idea  of  what  they  used  to  call  a  prayer- 
test  in  the  newspapers  is  plainly  enough  a  thing 
improper  and  impossible.  It  is  improper,  because  to 

K7 


58  ASK    AND   IT   SHALL   BE   GIVEN    YOU. 

ask  Christians  to  confine  their  prayers  to  one  side  of  a 
hospital,  and  pray  not  at  all  for  the  unhappy  sufferers 
on  the  other  side,  is  to  ask  a  thing  out  of  the  question — 
a  refined  species  of  cruelty  to  be  practiced  by  those  who 
believe  in  prayer.  It  is. improper,  too,  because  it  pro- 
poses that  we  should  try  experiments  upon  God.  They 
did  sometimes  try  that  sort  of  thing  upon  Jesus  Christ, 
and  he  invariably  refused  to  submit  to  it.  He  wrought 
wonders  and  signs  beyond  number  when  he  thought 
proper;  but  when  they  demanded  a  sign  according  to 
what  they  thought  proper,  he  never  granted  it.  For 
us  to  do  this  that  is  proposed  would  be  just  that  which 
they  did.  And  besides  being  improper,  it  is  also  im- 
possible. We  do  not  believe  that  prayer  now  works 
miracles.  It  is  not  the  idea  at  all  that  prayer  operates 
with  respect  to  physical  fixed  forces  otherwise  than  in 
accordance  with  physical  laws.  And  so  if  you  suppose 
prayer  to  be  answered  in  such  a  case,  it  could  only  be  in 
concurrence  with  proper  physical  conditions.  Then  the 
unbeliever  would  say  at  once  that  this  is  not  a  result  of 
prayer.  Such  a  test  is  impossible  unless  prayer  works 
miracles,  and  no  one  who  understands  the  matter  would 
suppose  that  to  be  the  idea.  Is  it  not  true,  then — plain 
enough  now  as  we  look  back  upon  it — that  the  great 
newspaper  sensation  of  a  few  years  since  was  a  thing 
improper  and  a  thing  impossible? 

But  for  us  who  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  it 
comes  back  to  this,  that  our  yearning  after  God  and 
that  disposition  to  cry  out  to  him  for  mercy  and  help, 
which  is  no  invention  of  theological  thinkers,  which  is 
the  natural  product  of  the  human  heart  and  the  natural 


ASK   AND   IT  SHALL   BE  GIVEN   YOU.  59 

expression  of  human  need  and  dependence,  has  the  high 
sanction  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity.  He  believed 
in  prayer;  he  taught  us  to  pray;  he  said:  "Ask,  and 
it  shall  be  given." 

And  notice  how  often  he  has  repeated  it.  One  might 
say  that  that  one  word  was  enough ;  one  might  say  that 
all  human  hearts  ought  to  fasten  on  that  one  utterance, 
and  feed  themselves  on  it,  and  rejoice  in  its  assurances. 
But  he  said  it  three  times :  "  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given 
you;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find;  knock,  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you."  As  if  not  content  with  that,  he 
repeats  it  three  times  again,  in  the  form  of  an  assurance 
that  so  it  always  is.  "  For  every  one  that  asketh  re- 
ceiveth,  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth,  and  to  him  that 
knocketh  it  is  opened."  And  even  after  that  he  goes 
on  to  argue  it  by  a  most  cogent  argument  and  affecting 
appeal.  Why  this  multiplied  repetition  and  assurance? 
Ah !  my  friends  and  brethren,  he  knew  very  well  how 
imperfectly  we  believe  in  prayer ;  how  difficult  it  is  for 
us  to  treat  prayer  as  a  reality,  and  he  wanted  to  help 
us.  He  condescends  to  our  infirmity,  and  again  and 
again,  in  multiplied  forms  of  expression,  he  would  as- 
sure us  that  if  we  ask,  we  shall  receive.  You  know 
how  prone  we  are  to  make  prayer  degenerate  into  an 
outward  thing.  A  little  child  needs  to  be  constantly 
reminded  by  its  mother  that  it  must  not  just  say 
prayers,  but  must  mean  what  it  is  saying.  And  we, 
with  all  our  intelligence  and  culture,  are  apt  to  make 
our  public  and  private  prayer  a  mere  outward  thing. 

How  hard  it  is  for  us  also,  when  we  try  to  pray,  to 
realize  what  we  are  doing !  I  remember  being  once 


60  ASK    AND    IT   SHALL    BE    GIVEN    YOU. 

deeply  impressed  with  this  thought  when  present  at  an 
institution  for  the  deaf  and  dumb.  After  some  teaching 
had  been  done,  one  of  the  principal  instructors  proceeded 
to  give  them  a  little  address  on  religion,  we  were  told, 
and  then  he  called  upon  them  to  pray.  The  whole 
room  was  still.  He  stood  with  reverent  face  and  slowly 
moved  his  hands  and  arms  in  the  signs  which  they 
understood,  and  they  sat  before  him  with  distended,  gaz- 
ing eyes,  and  the  room  grew  still  as  with  the  stillness  of 
death.  I  said  to  myself — I  could  hear  my  heart  beat — 
I  said  "  This  is  praying."  Not  a  word  spoken,  but  this 
was  praying,  praying  without  any  of  the  forms  to  which 
we  are  accustomed.  The  eyes  were  wide  open,  not  a 
sound  was  heard,  and  yet  human  souls  were  entering  into 
communion  with  the  Father  of  all  spirits.  I  went  away 
with  a  profounder  sense  than  ever  before  of  the  distinction 
between  the  mere  outward  form  and  means  of  prayer, 
and  the  inner  spirit  which  is  prayer.  Now,  our  Saviour 
knows  that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  what  we  do  when 
we  are  trying  to  pray. 

He  also  knows  how  prone  we  are  to  be  discouraged  in 
our  attempts  to  pray ;  when  we  try  experiments  upon 
prayer,  and  get  out  of  heart,  and  quit.  As  a  man  who 
is  endeavoring  to  eifect  some  invention,  and  has  given 
all  his  labor  and  used  all  his  materials,  hoping  that  he 
will  get  the  result,  when  he  fails,  gives  over  the  experi- 
ment, so,  how  often  do  we  make  a  mere  half-hearted  ex- 
periment of  praying  for  a  certain  blessing  upon  ourselves 
and  others,  and  when  it  does  not  come,  we  are  tempted  to 
give  it  up  as  a  failure  !  The  Saviour  knows  how  im- 
patient we  are  that  the  blessing  shall  come  quickly,  and 


ASK   AND   IT  SHALL   BE   GIVEN    YOU.  61 

therefore  cautions  us  not  to  faint  when  we  do  not  receive 
it  on  the  instant.  We  may  not  receive  it  in  the  form  we 
looked  for.  It  may  come  in  a  form  so  different  that  we 
shall  scarcely  recognize  it  as  what  we  asked  for ;  and  so 
he  gives  us  his  assurance  and  seeks  to  build  up  confidence 
in  our  hearts  that  praying  is  a  reality,  that  prayer  is  a 
power. 

And  now  notice  the  affecting  appeal  our  Lord  pro- 
ceeds to  make — an  appeal  which  those  of  us  who  are 
parents  will  feel  in  all  its  fullness,  but  which  all  of  us 
can  feel  more  or  less  because  all  of  us  know  something  of 
the  affection  of  our  own  parents.  "  What  man  is  there 
of  you — a  mere  man — who,  if  his  son  ask  for  bread,  will 
he  give  him  a  stone  ?"  Will  he  give  him  something  that 
looks  like  bread,  but  which  is  worthless  ?  "  Or  if  he 
ask  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent  ?" — something  that 
looks  like  a  fish  but  which  is  poisonous  and  deadly  ? 
Will  he  mock  his  child's  petition  by  giving  him  some- 
thing like  what  he  asked  for,  but  that  would  be  useless 
and  harmful  ?  And  if  ye  who  are  evil,  with  all  the  im- 
perfections of  your  sinful  humanity,  if  ye  know  how  to 
give  good  gifts  to  your  children,  how  much  more  will 
your  Heavenly  Father  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask 
him.  It  is  not  an  argument  merely,  as  I  used  to  think 
it  was — it  is  not  an  argument  merely  as  to  willingness  to 
give.  It  is  an  argument  as  to  wisdom  in  giving.  If  ye 
then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your 
children.  The  parent  might  make  a  mistake  himself 
and  give  a  stone  for  bread,  or  a  serpent  for  a  fish ;  as  a 
rule,  parents  do  not  do,  this  ;  and  if  even  ye,  in  your  ig- 
norance, know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children, 


62  ASK   AND   IT   SHALL   BE   GIVEN    YOU. 

how  much  more  will  your  Heavenly  Father  give  good 
gifts  to  those  who  ask  him  !  It  does  at  times  happen 
that  when  our  children  ask  for  bread  we  do  give  them  a 
stone ;  sometimes,  alas !  when  they  ask  for  a  fish  we  give 
them  a  serpent.  We  do  this  because  we  make  sad  mis- 
takes. How  many  parents  think  they  are  giving  their 
children  something  good  when  they  are  giving  them  .that 
which  is  useless  or  hurtful,  as  if  they  should  give  them 
a  poisonous  serpent  that  would  sting  them  to  death, 
though  they  do  not  know  it !  Often,  too,  we  are  ignorant, 
slothful  or  even  selfish,  and  when  the  child  asks,  we 
won't  take  the  pains  to  judge  carefully,  and  when  the 
child  entreats  again  and  again,  we  weakly  yield.  But  if 
even  we  who  are  ignorant,  heedless,  selfish,  know  how 
to  give  good  gifts,  how  much  more  will  our  Heavenly 
Father  give  good  gifts  to  them  that  ask  him,  for  he 
never  makes  mistakes  and  never  neglects  !  How  beauti- 
ful that  old  saying,  "He  is  too  wise  to  err,  and  too  good 
to  be  unkind  !"  He  never  makes  mistakes  in  listening 
to  our  requests.  He  is  never  too  busy  to  attend  to  our 
wishes.  And  the  very  thought  of  his  being  unkind  is 
intolerable. 

So,  then,  our  Father  is  not  only  willing  to  give,  he  is 
wise  in  giving.  That  is  the  point,  and  just  there  lies  one 
of  the  greatest  privileges  the  Scriptures  open  up  to  us, 
in  the  assurance  that  God  will  give  wisely,  and  this  in- 
volves withholding  where  he  shall  see  that  withholding 
is  better.  That  is  the  sweetest  privilege  of  prayer.  For  if 
God  should  give  to  you  and  me  an  unlimited  promise  of 
earthly  good  for  the  asking,  the  more  we  know  ourselves 
and  the  more  we  understand  human  nature  and  human 


ASK    AND   IT  SHALL   BE   GIVEN   YOU.  63 

life,  the  more  afraid  we  should  be  that  we  might  ask  for 
things  which  would  be  harmful.  Have  you  not  often 
asked  God  for  something  which  ytou  have  lived  to  find 
out  would  have  been  a  curse  to  you  ?  Have  you  not 
often  entreated  God  to  spare  you  something  which  it 
turned  out  to  be  a  blessing  to  you  that  he  did  not  spare  ? 
Have  you  not  learned  more  and  more  how  little  you 
could  rely  upon  your  judgment  as  to  what  was  really 
best  ?  So  I  say  in  that  case  the  wisest  and  best  people 
would  be  the  slowest  to  ask,  and  people  would  pray  less 
in  proportion  as  they  are  better  fitted  to  receive.  But, 
as  God  is  wise  in  giving,  we  may  ask  without  fear.  If  we 
ask  for  something  that  we  think  is  good  and  he  sees  it 
is  evil,  we  may  be  sure  that  he  will  not  grant  it.  If  we 
ask  for  what  is  really  good, — he  will  do  for  us  either 
what  we  ask  or  something  which  he  sees  to  be  better 
than  what  we  asked.  And  so  I  repeat  that  this  is  a  part 
of  the  privilege  of  prayer. 

One  Sunday  afternoon,  now  many  years  ago,  I  re- 
member to  have  been  sitting  in  a  darkened  room  with 
the  body  of  a  little  child ;  and  in  the  room  was  a  little 
boy  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  one  of  those  strange, 
thoughtful  children  that  startle  us  so  by  asking  questions 
that  sink  down  deep  into  the  mysteries  of  human  life. 
After  a  long  silence  the  boy  spoke,  and  said,  "  Uncle,  I 
should  like  to  ask  you  something."  "  Well."  "  Does 
not  the  Bible  say  that  whatever  we  ask  God,  he  will  do  for 
us?"  "Yes."  "Well,  I  did  ask  him  to  spare  my 
little  cousin's  life — I  did  ask  him  and  he  did  not  do  it. 
I  asked  him  and  I  don't  know  what  to  think  about  it." 
Ah !  I  thought,  as  we  sat  in  the  darkened  room,  how  far 

^3FFORB  COl/ 

• 


64  ASK    AND    IT  SHALL    BE   GIVEN    YOU. 

down  the  child  is  going  already  into  the  sorrowful 
depths  of  the  human  heart !  The  answer  I  made  was 
something  like  this  :  "  You  know  that  if  your  father 
should  send  you  off  to  boarding-school,  and  were  to  tell 
you  in  parting  that  whatever  you  wanted  you  must  write 
to  him"  and  you  should  have  it ;  and  if  you  were  to 
write  to  your  father,  on  the  strength  of  that  promise, 
for  something  that  was  not  right  for  him  to  give,  or  was 
not  really  best  for  you,  your  father  would  be  very  sure 
not  to  give  it  to  you,  and  if  he  did  not  give  it  to  you,  would 
you  think  he  had  broken  his  promise  ?"  The  child  heaved 
a  sigh  and  said,  "  Yes ;  I  think  I  see  how  it  is.'1  And 
my  friends,  the  more  you  reflect  upon  it,  the  more  com- 
fort there  is  in  that  thought,  that,  in  answering  our 
prayer  for  temporal  good,  our  Heavenly  Father  will 
give  wisely,  and  so  will  even  refuse  our  prayer  when 
He  sees  that  something  else  is  better. 

This  remarkable  encouragement  to  prayer  occurs 
towards  the  close  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Some 
of  the  commentators  think  there  is  no  connection  be- 
tween it  and  the  discourse  that  precedes ;  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  connection  is  plain.  "Ask,  and  ye  shall 
receive,"  explains  what  he  had  been  saying  a  little  be- 
fore. He  said:  "Judge  not,  that  you  be  not  judged;" 
and  what  good  man  ever  heard  that  read,  or  read  it 
himself,  without  smitings  of  heart?  It  is  one  of  the 
commonest  things,  this  business  of  harsh  judgment  of 
others,  and  it  is  very  difficult  for  us  to  avoid  it.  We 
are  so  ready,  the  most  thoughtful  and  purest  of  us,  so 
ready  to  be  hard  upon  others  and  easy  upon  ourselves, 
when  we  ought  to  reverse  that  proceeding.  "Judge  not, 


ASK    AND   IT   SHALL   BE   GIVEN    YOU.  65 

that  ye  be  not  judged."  Then,  as  you  read  along,  be- 
hold you  find  something  that  seems  to  present  a  new 
and  opposite  difficulty.  "  Give  not  that  which  is  holy 
to  the  dogs,  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls  before  swine, 
lest  they  trample  them  under  their  feet,  and  turn  again 
and  rend  you."  The  purport  of  this  is  somewhat  ob- 
scure; but  one  thing  is  clearly  involved.  We  must 
know  the  character  of  those  with  whom  we  have  inter- 
course, and  deal  with  them  accordingly;  and  yet  we 
must  not  judge  harshly.  We  must  refrain  from  judg- 
ment, and  at  the  same  time  must  keep  our  own  eyes 
open  and  know  men.  Now,  when  you  put  those  things 
together,  you  say,  Ah  !  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ? 
Who  can  go  through  life,  knowing  the  folly  of  men, 
understanding  their  wiles  and  their  weaknesses,  and  yet 
not  judging  his  fellow-men  in  an  unkindly  spirit?  But 
he  who  enjoins  these  two  difficult  and  seemingly  antag- 
onistic precepts  immediately  afterwards  says :  "  Ask, 
and  it  shall  be  given  you."  Hard  it  is  for  us  to  do 
such  things  as  these;  but  "ask,  and  it  shall  be  given 
you." 

Again,  if  you  go  a  little  further  back  in  the  discourse, 
you  will  find  he  urges  upon  us  not  to  be  anxious  about 
temporal  good,  not  to  be  anxious  about  food  and  rai- 
ment, not  to  be  anxious  about  to-morrow;  and  those 
who  most  earnestly  try  to  follow  that  know  best  how 
« hard  it  is  to  obey  the  command.  Ah,  as  the  responsi- 
bilities of  life  thicken  around  us,  and  there  come  to  be 
others  concerned  in  our  action,  it  grows  all  the  harder 
to  restrain  ourselves  from  anxiety  about  human  affairs. 
In  fact,  we  are  obliged  to  look  sharply  to  the  future 
5 


66  ASK    AND    IT   SHALL   BE   GIVEN   YOU. 

and  plan  for  it,  even  for  the  far  distant  future.  And 
yet  here  is  Jesus  Christ  telling  us  not  to  be  anxious 
about  temporal  good,  not  to  be  anxious  about  the  future, 
but  to  put  our  trust  in  God's  providence  and  to  seek 
God's  righteousness,  and  then  there  shall  come  a  bless- 
ing upon  our  planning  and  exertion,  and  we  need  not  be 
anxious.  It  is  so  hard,  you  say,  for  a  man  to  go  on 
amid  grave  responsibilities,  and  yet  to  restrain  himself 
from  this  anxiety,  so  hard ;  but  he  who  urged  this  upon 
us  did  not  cease  speaking  before  he  said :  "  Ask,  and  it 
shall  be  given  you." 

Yet  again,  going  further  back  in  the  discourse,  you 
find  that  we  must  seek  ever,  and  not  be  content  with- 
out, a  higher  spiritual  morality  than  that  of  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees.  Now,  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  so  far 
as  outward  proprieties  of  life  are  concerned,  were  emi- 
nently good  men ;  and  yet  he  tells  us  we  must  be  better 
than  they  were.  We  must  not  only  be  outwardly  good, 
but  within  we  must  be  pure  from  sin.  We  must  not 
only  have  the  outward  appearance  of  chastity,  but  he 
tells  us  that  there  may  be  in  a  lustful  look  the  essential 
element,  and  therefore  the  guilt,  of  unchastity.  We  are 
not  only  to  restrain  ourselves  from  external  wrong- 
doing, but  govern  our  thoughts  and  desires,  and  con- 
trol our  whole  inner  being,  and  make  the  world  within 
us  conform  to  the  spirit  of  the  teachings  of  Christ. 
And  you  say :  "  O,  how  difficult,  how  difficult !"  Yes,  < 
difficult;  but  he  who  enjoined  this  upon  us  did  not 
cease  to  speak  on  that  same  occasion  till  he  had  said : 
"Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you." 

So,  then,  my  hearers,  let  us  learn  to  put  the  precepts 


ASK    AND   IT   SHALL   BE   GIVEN   YOU.  67 

of  Christ  along  with  Christ's  invitation  to  seek  help 
from  on  high.  He  who  gave  these  stringent  commands 
gave  us  encouragement  to  come  and  ask  for  help,  the 
help  of  his  grace,  the  help  of  his  Holy  Spirit.  "  How 
much  more,"  as  our  Lord  expressed  it  on  another  occa- 
sion, "  will  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  them  that  ask  him." 

My  friends,  why  do  you  not  pray  ?  Are  you  ashamed 
to  pray  ?  There  are  people  not  ashamed  to  be  practicing 
vice,  not  ashamed  to  be  heard  speaking  blasphemy,  but 
ashamed  to  have  it  known  that  they  pray.  There  are 
people  that  are  too  proud  to  bow  their  knees  before  the 
Lord  God.  There  are  people  that  think  somehow  it  is  be- 
neath their  dignity  to  pray.  Are  you  ashamed  to  pray  ? 
The  poet  Coleridge  wrote  something  in  his  youth  which 
made  light  of  prayer ;  but,  in  his  later  years,  he  called 
a  friend  to  him  one  day  and  referred  to  what  he  had 
written  and  published,  and  said,  "It  was  all  folly,"  and 
then  he  said  in  earnest  tones,  "  The  very  noblest  possible 
exercise  of  the  human  mind  is  prayer."  Is  it  not  so  ? 
When  men  in  all  the  loftiness  of  intellect  look  deepest 
into  the  spaces  of  the  universe  and  widest  into  its  won- 
ders ;  when  men,  in  the  might  of  administrative  talent, 
make  it  their  ruling  thought  to  control  whole  nations 
and  the  age  they  live  in  ;  when  men  govern  great  assem- 
blies and  sway  them  as  the  wind  sways  the  harvest  grain, 
even  then  it  is  all  a  little  thing  compared  to  the  noble- 
ness of  the  exercise  of  the  human  mind  in  prayer,  where- 
in a  human  being,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  elevates 
his  thought  into  communion  with  the  thought  of  God,  lifts 
up  his  spirit  into  fellowship  with  the  Father  of  Spirits. 


68  ASK   AND   IT  SHALL  BE  GIVEN   YOU. 

There  was  a  man  that  trod  the  earth  once  who  was 
superior  to  all  men  in  holiness  and  wisdom,  who  lived 
all  his  life  on  earth  without  sin.  He  so  wise  and  good, 
loved  to  pray,  and  are  you  ashamed  to  pray  ? 

My  hearers,  why  do  you  not  all  pray  ?  God  knows 
whether  you  do  or  not,  and  you  know.  Are  you  afraid 
to  pray  ?  Well  a  man  might  be,  when  he  thinks  of  all 
his  siufulness,  when  he  remembers  all  the  wicked  things 
that  he  has  done  that  men  know  of,  and  all  the  wicked 
things  he  has  thought  that  men  know  not  of,  but  God 
must  know ;  when  he  sees  he  has  not  half  confidence 
in  the  God  he  thinks  of  praying  to.  But  there  is  a  name 
we  may  plead ;  there  is  an  intercessor  we  may  lean  on ; 
there  is  a  Holy  Spirit  to  help  our  infirmities  in  praying. 
O !  sinful  and  troubled  soul  of  man,  you  need  not  be 
afraid  to  pray !  If  you  come  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  you  may  come  boldly  to  the  throne  of  grace.  If 
you  come  leaning  on  the  Spirit's  help,  you  may  come 
assured  that  your  request  will  be  granted. 

My  hearers,  why  do  you  not  pray  ?  Have  you  no 
need  to  pray  ?  Is  there  no  good  thing  that  God  can 
give,  and  that  you  need  ?  No  earthly  good  for  yourself 
or  others,  about  which  you  had  better  be  asking  the 
Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift?  No  spiritual 
good  ?  Have  you  no  sins  to  be  forgiven  ?  Have  you 
no  weakness  to  be  helped,  no  temptations  to  struggle 
against?  Have  you  no  troubles?  O  child  of  man, 
child  of  sin  and  sorrow,  living  in  the  strange  world  we 
are  called  to  inhabit,  have  you  no  need  to  pray  to  your 
Father  and  your  God  ?  Why  do  you  not  pray  ? 

My  friends,  let  us  make  it  a  practical  lesson  for  us  all. 


ASK    AND   IT   SHALL   BE   GIVEN   YOU.  69 

Christian  people,  begin  to  pray  more.  Fathers  of  fami- 
lies, if  you  have  neglected  to  pray  with  your  families, 
begin  now  at  once.  If  you  have  been  negligent  in  pub- 
lic or  private  prayer,  renew  your  petitions  with  earnest- 
ness. O,  troubled  one,  shrinking  away  from  the  Sav- 
iour, remember  that  he  said,  "  Ask  and  it  shall  be  given 
you."  And,  if  there  is  somebody  here  this  evening  that 
has  not  prayed  for  months,  that  has  not  prayed  for  years ; 
if  there  is  some  man  that  has  not  prayed  since  the  time 
long  ago  when  he  prayed  by  his  mother's  knee,  and  who 
all  these  years  has  been  slighting  God's  word  and  reject- 
ing God's  invitation ;  O  soul,  O  fellow-sinner,  will 
you  not  to-night  take  Jesus'  word  home  to  your  heart, 
and  begin  to  find  in  your  experience  what  some  like  you 
have  found,  that  you  have  but  to  ask  and  it  shall  be 
given  ? 


WOFFORD  COLLEGE  LIBHAK\ 


V. 

HE  EVER  LIVETH  TO  INTERCEDE. 

Wherefore  also  he  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  them  that  draw  near 
unto  God  through  him,  seeing  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for 
them—  Heb.  7:  25. 

YEARS  ago,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  I  went  to  hear 
an  eminent  musician.  He  played  with  genius  and  skill 
some  magnificent  music,  but  the  pieces  were  nearly 
all  new  to  me,  and,  as  often  happens  in  such  cases,  it 
required  so  much  effort  to  comprehend  the  idea  of 
the  piece,  that  I  could  but  partially  enjoy  its  beauty. 
At  length,  upon  being  loudly  applauded,  the  musician 
returned,  and  seating  himself  at  the  instrument,  struck 
out  in  full  tones  the  opening  notes  of  "  Home,  Sweet 
Home."  I  shall  never  forget  while  I  live  the  thrill 
that  passed  through  the  audience.  I  seemed  to  feel 
that  it  was  approaching  me,  seemed  to  feel  when  it 
reached  and  embraced  me.  That  was  a  theme  that  all 
could  comprehend,  and  rich  for  us  all  in  a  thousand  de- 
lightful suggestions  and  associations  ;  and,  strangers  as 
we  were,  the  hearts  of  the  vast  assembly  seemed  melted 
into  one  as  we  listened  to  those  swelling  tones.  My 
brethren,  I  wish  it  might  always  be  so  with  us  when 
one  begins  to  speak  to  us  of  Jesus.  There  is  many  a 
subject  of  public  discourse  that  well  deserves  our  atten- 
tion. Especially  the  topics  drawn  from  the  Bible  and 
usually  presented  from  the  pulpit  are  all  important  and 
70 


HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE.  71 

should  all  be  interesting.  Whatever  pertains  to  God 
and  his  providence,  to  his  gracious  dealings  with  man 
in  the  past,  and  his  purposes  of  mercy  for  the  future, 
whatever  to  the  condition  and  wants  of  our  race  as  sin- 
ful and  immortal,  should  awaken  our  minds  and  impress 
our  hearts.  Difficult  and  mysterious  as  some  of  these 
topics  are,  they  are  useful  ;  and  if  we  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  wander  into  speculation  or  descend  into  secular- 
ity,  they  will  give  us  pleasure  and  do  us  good.  But 
Jesus — it  is  a  theme  which  all  alike  can  understand,  in 
which  all  alike  are  profoundly  concerned,  a  theme  asso- 
ciated with  all  the  sweetest  recollections  of  our  spiritual 
life,  with  all  the  brightest  hopes  of  our  immortal  future. 
Ah  !  we  are  perishing  and  helpless  sinners,  and  it 
ought  to  thrill  through  our  very  hearts,  to  link  us  in 
living  sympathy,  and  kindle  our  souls  into  a  glow  of 
love  and  joy  to  hear  of  Jesus,  our  divine,  our  loving,  our 
precious  Saviour.  It  ought  to  be  not  mere  poetry,  but 
the  true  expression  of  genuine  feeling,  when  we  sing, — 

"Jesus,  I  love  thy  charming  name; 

'Tis  music  to  mine  ear; 
Fain  would  I  sound  it  out  so  loud 
That  earth  and  heaven  might  hear." 

And  my  text  to-day  treats  of  Jesus. 

The  Jewish  Christians  to  whom  this  Epistle  was  ad- 
dressed were  strongly  urged,  both  in  the  way  of  perse- 
cution and  persuasion,  to  apostatize  from  Christianity, 
and  return  to  Judaism.  Among  the  arguments  em- 
ployed for  this  purpose,  it  was  urged  that  Christianity 
had  no  priesthood,  no  sacrifice  or  temple,  and  so  was 


72  HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

really  no  religion  at  all.  The  inspired  writer  of  this 
Epistle  meets  these  arguments,  and,  in  fact,  turns  them 
into  proofs  of  the  superiority  of  Christianity.  Thus, 
in  regard  to  the  priesthood,  he  shows  that  Christianity 
has  a  priest,  a  great  High-Priest,  immensely  superior  to 
the  Levitical  priesthood.  His  office  is  held  forever. 
He  has  offered,  once  for  all,  the  wonderful  sacrifice  of 
himself,  which  is  forever  sufficient.  He  has  passed 
through  the  heavens  into  the  true  sanctuary,  bearing  his 
own  precious,  atoning  blood.  Then  Christianity  is  su- 
perior in  this,  as  in  other  respects,  to  Judaism,  that  is,  to 
the  Mosaic  dispensation  if  regarded  as  complete  in  it- 
self, and  designed  to  be  permanent ;  and  so  the  sacred 
writer  urges  his  brethren  not  to  apostatize,  interspersing 
everywhere  throughout  his  arguments  the  most  earnest 
exhortations  to  hold  fast  their  profession,  the  most 
solemn  warnings  of  the  guilt  and  ruin  of  apostasy. 
And  for  us  as  well  as  for  them,  grievous  is  the  guilt 
and  hopeless  the  ruin  of  abandoning  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  our  sole  hope  of  salvation. 

One  of  the  points  he  makes  to  prove  this  superiority 
of  Christ  and  Christianity,  is  that  from  which  the  text 
is  an  inference.  The  Levitical  priesthood  was  held  by 
many  persons  in  succession,  "because  that  by  death  they 
were  hindered  from  continuing  ;  "  but  Jesus,  "  because 
he  abideth  forever,  hath  his  priesthood  unchangeable. 
"Wherefore  he  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  them  that 
draw  near  unto  God  through  him,  seeing  he  ever  liveth 
to  make  intercession  for  them."  The  phrase  translated 
"  to  the  uttermost "  signifies  "perfectly,"  "  completely ;  " 
he  can  save  completely,  can  complete  the  salvation  of 


HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE.  73 

them  that  come  unto  God  through  him.  And  the 
thought  of  the  text  is  that  he  is  able  to  complete  their 
salvation,  because  he  ever  lives  to  intercede  for  them. 

Perhaps  we  are  accustomed  to  look  too  exclusively  to 
the  Saviour's  atoning  death,  not  dwelling  as  we  should 
upon  the  idea  of  his  interceding  life.  See  how  the 
apostle  speaks  in  Romans :  "  For  if,  while  we  were 
enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God  through  the  death 
of  his  Sou,  much  more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be 
saved  by  his  life."  And  again :  "  Christ  Jesus  that 
died,  yea  rather  that  was  raised  from  the  dead,  who  is  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us."  He  who  loved  us  and  gave  himself  for  us 
ever  liveth  to  accomplish  the  objects  for  which  he  died ; 
as  the  mediatorial  priest,  he  is  ever  interceding  for  the 
salvation  of  them  that  come  unto  God  through  him ;  as 
the  mediatorial  king,  having  all  authority  given  unto 
him  in  heaven  and  earth,  he  controls  all  things  so  as  to 
carry  forward  to  completion  the  work  of  their  salva- 
tion. 

My  brethren,  it  is  just  such  a  Saviour  that  we  need. 
From  the  first  moment  when  we  approach  God  through 
him,  onward  through  life,  and  in  a  certain  just  sense 
onward  without  end,  we  continually  need  God's  mercy 
and  grace  for  the  Saviour's  sake.  If  we  dwell  on  this, 
we  shall  be  better  prepared  to  rejoice  that  our  great 
High  Priest  ever  lives  to  intercede  for  us,  and  thus  can 
complete  our  salvation. 

1.  We  are  tempted.  And  what  hope  have  we  of  con- 
quering temptation,  save  "  through  him  that  loved  us  ?" 
Remember  what  our  Lord  said  to  his  disciples,  with 


74  HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

regard  to  the  sore  temptations  that  would  soon  befall 
them  :  "  Simon,  Simon,  behold,  Satan  asked  to  have  you, 
that  he  might  sift  you  as  wheat ;  but  I  made  supplica- 
tion for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail  not."  As  Satan  is  de- 
scribed as  seeking  permission  from  that  Sovereign 
Kuler,  without  whose  permission  all  his  might  and  his 
malice  are  powerless,  to  tempt  Job  with  peculiar  trials, 
in  the  hope  that  he  could  bring  him  to  renounce  the 
'Lord,  so  here  as  to  the  disciples.  "  Satan  asked  to  have 
you  " — and  the  term,  as  well  as  the  connection,  shows 
that  he  was  permitted  to  have  them,  u  that  he  might  sift 
you  as  wheat."  Jesus  himself  is  represented  by  John 
the  Baptist  as  engaged  in  a  similar  process :  "  Whose 
fan  is  in  his  hand,  and  he  will  thoroughly  cleanse  his 
threshing-floor,  and  gather  his  wheat  into  the  garner ; 
but  he  will  burn  up  the  chaff  with  unquenchable  fire." 
But  how  different  is  the  object  in  the  two  cases !  Satan 
sifts  with  the  hope  of  showing  that  all  is  really  worth- 
less, fit  only  for  destruction.  Jesus  sifts  in  order  to 
separate  the  precious  from  the  vile,  and  preserve  the 
pure  wheat  for  the  garner  of  heaven.  And  often  what 
Satan  meant  as  a  sifting  for  evil  is  overruled  by  the 
stronger  power  so  as  to  be  for  good. 

How  was  it  with  Peter  ?  The  Saviour  said  :  "  But 
I  made  supplication  for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail  not ; " 
and  though  his  faith  mournfully  gave  way,  it  did  not 
utterly  give  out.  I  am  not  excusing  Peter  at  all.  We 
may  be  sure  he  never  forgave  himself.  It  was  a  sad  and 
shameful  fall ;  but  Jesus  had  made  supplication  for  him ; 
and  how  different  the  result  in  his  case  from  that  of 
Judas.  He,  too,  was  one  of  those  whom  Satan  obtained 


HE   EVER   LIVETH  TO   INTERCEDE.  75 

to  sift  them,  and  the  result  proved  him  to  be  all  that 
Satan  could  wish.  When  he  saw  the  consequences  of  his 
horrid  crime,  and  had  time  to  reflect  upon  it,  he  was 
sorry ;  but  it  was  not  the  tender  grief  of  a  truly  penitent 
heart  which  would  have  brought  him  back  with  humble 
submission — it  was  the  sorrow  of  the  world  that  worketh 
death — it  was  remorse  that  drove  him  headlong  into 
self-destruction.  But  Peter — when  the  cock  crowed 
after  his  third  denial  of  his  Lord  and  that  injured  one 
turned  and  looked  upon  him — Peter  went  out  and  wept 
bitterly,  with  the  sorrow  "  that  worketh  repentance  unto 
salvation,"  the  sorrow  of  a  deeply  humble  and  really 
loving  heart.  There  was  a  great  change  from  that  time 
in  Peter,  for  the  Lord  had  prayed  for  him,  and  Divine 
grace  not  only  preserved  him  from  utter  spiritual  ruin, 
but  overruled  his  own  dreadful  wickedness  to  his 
spiritual  good. 

Observe  with  what  special  emphasis  the  Saviour's  in- 
tercession for  the  tempted  is  spoken  of  in  this  Epistle. 
The  persons  therein  addressed  were,  as  we  have  seen, 
peculiarly  and  sorely  tempted — tempted  even  to  forsake 
Christianity,  through  which  alone  they  could  find  salva- 
tion ;  apart  from  which  "  there  remaineth  no  more  sac- 
rifice for  sins,  but  a  certain  fearful  expectation  of  judg- 
ment and  a  fierceness  of  fire  which  shall  devour  the  ad- 
versary." The  Jewish  high  priest,  being  taken  from 
among  men,  "  could  bear  gently  with  the  ignorant  and 
erring,  for  that  he  himself  also  was  compassed  with  in- 
firmity." So  our  great  High  Priest  took  upon  him  human 
nature  partly  for  this  very  reason,  that  he  might  sympa- 
thize with  the  tempted,  and  that  we  might  feel  sure  he 


76  HE   EVER   LFVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

does  sympathize.  "  Wherefore  in  all  things  it  behooved 
him  to  be  made  like  unto  his  brethren,  that  he  might  be 
a  merciful  and  faithful  High  Priest  in  things  pertaining 
to  God,  to  make  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  people. 
For  in  that  he  himself  hath  suffered,  being  tempted,  he 
is  able  to  succor  them  that  are  tempted."  And  it  is  be- 
cause of  his  atoning  sacrifice  and  sympathizing  inter- 
cession that  we  are  urged  to  hold  fast  our  profession  as 
Christians,  and  encouraged  to  come  to  God  with  entire 
confidence.  This  is  done  in  words  that  have  been  very 
dear  to  tempted  hearts  in  every  age  since  the  holy  man 
of  God  spake  them  as  he  was  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
"  Having,  then,  a  great  High  Priest  who  hath  passed 
through  the  heavens,  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  let  us  hold 
fast  our  confession.  For  we  have  not  a  high  priest  that 
cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities;  but 
one  that  hath  been  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are, 
yet  without  sin.  Let  us  THEREFORE  draw  near  with 
boldness  unto  the  throne  of  grace  that  we  may  receive 
mercy,  and  may  find  grace  to  help  us  in  time  of 
need." 

Ah  !  mighty,  to  the  most  favored,  are  the  temptations 
of  life.  Many  belong  to  all  periods  ;  others  mark  some 
special  season.  Many  are  "  common  to  man  ;  "  others 
belong  to  some  particular  condition  or  calling.  "  The 
/heart  knoweth  its  own  bitterness  ; "  yea,  and  its  own 
trials,  and  its  own  weakness.  Be  this  our  support — our 
Saviour  lives,  he  sympathizes  with  us,  he  intercedes 
for  us ;  let  us  draw  near  unto  God  through  him,  unto 
God  who  has  said,  "  As  thy  days,  so  shall  thy 
strength  be." 


HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO    INTERCEDE.  77 

"  The  soul  that  on  Jesus  hath  leaned  for  repose, 
I  will  not,  I  will  not  desert  to  its  foes  ; 
That  soul,  though  all  hell  should  endeavor  to  shake, 
I'll  never,  no  never,  no  never  forsake." 

2.  But  many  times,  sad  as  is  the  confession,  we  yield 
to  temptation,  we  sin  ;  and  "  the  soul  that  sinneth,  it 
shall  die."  Must  we  then  despair  ?  Must  the  hopes 
we  had  cherished  be  abandoned,  and  this  new  sin  be  the 
terror  of  our  souls  ?  Listen !  The  apostle  John  wrote  an 
Epistle  for  the  express  purpose  of  restraining  his  breth- 
ren from  sin  ;  yet  he  does  not  cut  off  those  who  are  con- 
scious they  have  sinned  from  the  hope  of  forgiveness  and 
salvation.  He  says  :  "  My  little  children,  these  things 
write  I  unto  you,  that  ye  may  not  sin.  And  if  any  man 
sin,  we  have  an  Advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ, 
the  righteous  ;  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins ; 
and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  whole  world." 
Now  we  know  what  an  advocate  was,  according  to  the 
usages  of  the  Roman  law,  and  is  among  ourselves,  viz.: 
one  who  undertakes  the  management  of  another's  case  in 
court,  and  pleads  his  cause.  So  Jesus  is  our  Advocate 
with  the  Father.  But,  as  in  other  cases  where  spiritual 
things  are  illustrated  by  temporal,  the  analogy  is  not 
perfect ;  there  are  differences.  Our  advocate  does  not 
argue  that  we  are  innocent,  but  confessing  our  guilt, 
pleads  for  mercy  to  us ;  and  he  does  not  present  our 
merits  as  a  reason  why  mercy  should  be  shown  us,  but 
his  merits.  "  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  His 
atoning  death  does,  as  it  were,  render  God  propitious,  or 
favorable  to  sinners.  Not  that  God  is  unwilling  to  show 
favor  to  poor  sinners,  and  only  prevailed  on  to  do  so  by 


78  HE  EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

the  death  and  intercession  of  his  Son.  Oh  no  !  far  from 
it.  "  Herein  is  love,"  says  John  in  the  same  Epistle, 
"  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent 
his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  It  was  be- 
cause God  loved  us,  and  wanted  us  to  be  saved,  that  he 
devised  this  way  of  saving  us.  And  God  is  made  pro- 
pitious, favorable  to  us,  not  when  he  is  made  willing  to 
save,  but  when  it  is  made  right  that  he  should  save  us, 
and  therefore  we  need  not  die,  but  may  have  everlasting 
life.  When  a  sinner  is  pardoned,  simply  for  the  sake  of 
the  atoning  and  interceding  Saviour,  there  is  in  that  no 
encouragement  to  God's  creatures  to  sin,  as  if  it  were  a 
little  thing  and  could  be  readily  passed  over,  but  a  most 
solemn  and  impressive  exhibition  of  the  dreadful  evil  of 
sin,  since  it  was  only  through  the  atonement  and  inter- 
cession of  the  only-begotten  Son  of  God  that  any  sinner 
could  be  forgiven — an  exhibition  £ft  once  of  God's  love 
to  the  perishing,  and  of  his  justice,  that  "  will  by  no 
means  clear  the  guilty." 

Bearing  in  mind  the  difference  between  the  pleading 
of  our  great  Advocate  and  any  parallel  which  human 
affairs  presents,  we  may  look  at  a  story  of  Grecian  his- 
tory, which  has  been  often  used  to  illustrate  the  Sav- 
iour's intercession.  The  poet  ^Eschylus  had  incurred 
the  displeasure  of  the  Athenians.  He  was  on  trial  be- 
fore the  great  popular  tribunal,  consisting  of  many  hun- 
dreds of  citizens,  and  was  about  to  be  condemned.  But 
jEschylus  had  a  brother,  who  had  lost  an  arm  in  battle 
— in  the  great  battle  of  Salatnis,  where  the  Greeks 
fought  for  their  existence  against  the  Persian  aggressors. 
This  brother  came  into  the  court,  and  did  not  speak 


HE   EVER    LIVETH   TO    INTERCEDE.  79 

words  of  entreaty,  but  letting  fall  his  mantle,  he  showed 
the  stump  of  his  arm,  lost  in  his  country's  defense,  and 
there  stood  until  the  Athenians  relented,  and  ^Eschylus 
was  suffered  to  go  free.  So,  my  brethren,  imperfect  and 
unworthy  as  is  the  illustration,  so  we  may  conceive  that 
when  we  are  about  to  be  condemned,  and  justly  con- 
demned for  our  sins,  our  glorious  Brother  stands  up  in 
our  behalf,  and  does  not  need  to  speak  a  word,  but  only 
to  show  where  he  was  wounded  on  the  cross — 

"  Five  bleeding  wounds  he  bears, 

Received  on  Calvary ; 
They  pour  effectual  prayers, 

They  strongly  speak  for  me ; 
'Forgive  him,  O  forgive,'  they  cry, 
'  Nor  let  that  ransomed  sinner  die ! ' " 

Here,  then,  is  hope  for  us.  "  If  any  man  sin,"  much 
as  he  ought  to  deplore  it,  he  need  not  despair.  Our 
Advocate  with  the  Father  ever  liveth  to  make  interces- 
sion for  them  that  come  unto  God  through  him,  and 
through  him  we  may  find  mercy.  And  here  is  no  en- 
couragement to  sin,  but  the  very  contrary.  If  we  truly 
trust  in,  truly  love  our  interceding  Lord,  we  shall  be 
supremely  anxious  for  his  dear  sake  to  turn  from  sin, 
to  live  for  him  who  died  for  us ;  yea,  who  ever  lives  as 
our  Saviour. 

3.  This  suggests  another  respect  in  which  is  seen  our 
need  of  our  Lord's  perpetual  intercession.  We  make 
such  slow  progress  in  attaining  holiness — holiness,  which 
is  the  noblest  thing  men  can  aspire  to— holiness,  "  with- 
out which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.''  Many  a  Chris- 
tian, as  he  sorrowfully  sees  how  often  he  yields  to 


80  HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

temptation,  how  his  character  breaks  down  afresh  where 
he  thought  it.  had  grown  most  firm,  is  at  times  inclined 
to  think  it  impossible  that  he  should  ever  become  really 
holy.  But  remember  how  Jesus  prayed  the  night  be- 
fore his  atoning  death,  "  Sanctify  them  in  the  truth  ; 
thy  word  is  truth."  "  I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldest 
take  them  out  of  the  world,  but  that  thou  shouldest 
keep  them  from  the  evil."  Think  you  that  he,  who  ever 
lives  to  intercede  for  his  people,  does  not  still  pray  this 
prayer,  that  they  may  be  sanctified  and  kept  from  the 
evil?  Do  you  doubt  that  he  prays  for  them  still,  as  he 
did  when  on  earth  ?  His  people's  wants  have  not 
changed,  and  as  for  him,  he  is  "the  same  yesterday 
and  to-day  and  forever."  Find  me  a  young  man  far 
from  his  home  whose  mother  used  to  pray  for  him 
when  they  were  together,  and  try  to  make  him  believe 
that  she  does  not  pray  for  him  still.  "  No,  no,"  he 
would  say,  "  if  she  is  living,  she  prays  for  me." 
Brethren,  he  who  prays  for  us  "  ever  lives."  When 
the  Jews  gathered  at  the  temple  on  the  great  day  of 
atonement,  and  the  high  priest  went  into  the  holy  of' 
holies  to  pray  for  the  people  and  himself,  did  the  people 
doubt  whether  he  was  praying  ?  Why,  for  that  very 
purpose  he  had  withdrawn  from  their  view.  So  for 
that  very  purpose  our  High  Priest  has  entered  "  not 
into  a  holy  place  made  with  hands,  like  in  pattern  to 
the  true,  but  into  heaven  itself,  now  to  appear  before  the 
face  of  God  for  us."  And  do  not  say  that  the  Jewish 
high  priest  was  absent  but  a  few  minutes,  Avhile  it  is 
long  since  Jesus  went  away.  On  the  scale  of  the  ages 
it  is  but  a  little  while  since  he  entered  the  heavenly 


HE   EVER    LIVETH    TO    INTERCEDE.  81 

sanctuary,  having  "  been  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of 
many,"  and  any  moment  he  may  "  appear  a  second 
time  apart  from  sin  unto  salvation."  Let  us  be  sure 
that  while  absent  he  perpetually  carries  on  his  work 
of  intercession. 

Think  of  him,  then,  as  still  praying,  "  Sanctify  them 
in  the  truth.  Keep  them  from  the  evil."  In  all  our 
disheartening  failures  to  keep  good  resolutions,  even 
when  we  may  be  tempted  to  think  it  scarce  worth  while 
for  us  to  try  to  be  holy,  let  us  remember  that  Jesus 
prays  for  us,  and,  "  forgetting  the  things  which  are  be- 
hind, and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are 
before,  let  us  press  toward  the  mark."  Ah  !  brethren, 
though  it  might  often  seem  to  us  the  bitterest  irony  now 
for  a  man  to  call  you  and  me  the  saints  of  the  Lord, 
yet,  if  indeed  we  are  in  Christ,  and  thus  are  new  crea- 
tures, we  have  but  to  trust  in  his  intercession  for  the 
sanctifying  Spirit,  and  earnestly  strive  to  "  grow  in 
grace,"  and  we  shall  make  progress  ;  yea,  sadly  imper- 
fect as  is  now  our  conformity  to  the  Saviour's  beautiful 
image,  "  we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear  we  shall 
be  like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is."  O  burdened 
spirit,  crying,  "  Wretched  man  that  I  am^  who  shall  de- 
liver me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ?  "  be  sure  to  add, 
"  I  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  The  Sa- 
viour will  continue  to  intercede,  the  Spirit  will  help  your 
infirmities,  and  you  shall  at  last  be  pure  from  sin,  and 
safe  from  temptation  to  sin,  a  saint  of  the  Lord  forever. 

4.  When  we  are  in  sorrow  it  is  a  blessed  thing  that 
Jesus  ever  lives  to  pray  for  us.  He  was  himself  while 
on  earth,  "a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief." 
6 


82  HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

And  he  showed  the  truest,  tenderest  sympathy  with 
the  sorrows  of  others.  Who  does  not  think  at  once  of 
that  touching  scene  at  Bethany  ?  "  Jesus  wept,"  in 
affection  for  the  departed,  in  sympathy  with  the  be- 
reaved. And  presently,  standing  by  the  tomb,  he  said, 
"  Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  heard  me."  Then 
he  had  been  praying,  asking  that  he  might  be1  able  to 
raise  Lazarus  from  the  dead.  We  do  not  expect  him 
now  to  pray  that  miracles  may  be  wrought  in  behalf  of 
the  bereaved.  We  do  dbt  expect  him  now  to  give  back 
the  buried  brother  to^his  sisters,  or  to  the  widowed 
mother  her  only  son.  But  shall  it  not  be  a  consolation 
to  us  all  in  our  afflictions,  to  feel  assured  that  he  now 
intercedes  for  us  ;  that  now,  too,  the  Father  hears  him, 
and  that  by  the  gracious  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Comforter,  this  affliction  shall  work  for  us  glory  ? 
And  though  we  cannot  now  see  his  tears,  nor  hear  his 
loving  voice,  as  did  the  mourners  at  Bethany,  neither  do 
we  need  to  send  a  messenger  many  miles,  and  wait,  day 
after  day,  and  go  forth  into  the  suburbs  to  meet  him ; 
he  is  everywhere  alike  near,  and  ever  ready  to  pray  for  us 
to  his  Father  and  our  Father,  to  his  God  and  our  God. 
5.  When  we  come  to  die — he  is  "  alive  forevermore." 
One  of  his  servants,  when  near  to  death,  saw  "  heaven 
opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on  the  right  hand 
of  God,"  where  he  represents  and  intercedes  for  his  peo- 
ple. And  so  in  departing  he  committed  his  spirit  to 
him,  as  now  exalted  and  glorious,  and  ready  to  receive 
it.  And  so,  amid  all  the  cruel  injustice  and  suffering, 
he  was  calm  and  forgiving.  And  so,  though  they  were 
stoning  him  to  death,  "  he  fell  asleep."  O,  whenever 


HE   EVER  LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE.  83 

you  are  called  to  die,  brother,  and  however,  whether 
among  loving  friends  in  your  pleasant  home,  or  far  away 
in  loneliness  and  want,  whether  with  ample  forewarning 
or  in  the  suddenness  of  a  moment,  think  of  your  inter- 
ceding Saviour  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  and 
say,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit/'  and  you  too  shall 
fall  asleep. 

6.  Even  this  is  not  the  end  of  his  work  for  his  peo- 
ple. There  shall  be  a  "  redemption  of  the  body."  Many 
have  been  sad  in  the  last  twenty  years,  because  the 
bodies  of  their  loved  ones  lie  so  far  away,  lie  perhaps 
undistinguished  among  the  huge  masses  of  the  unnamed 
dead.  But  he  who  receives  the  departing  spirit  to  him- 
self will  also  care  for  the  mouldering  body.  His  resur- 
rection is  a  pledge  of  the  glorious  resurrection  of  his 
people.  "  If  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again, 
even  so  them  also  who  through  Jesus  have  fallen  asleep, 
will  God  bring  with  him."  "  Who  shall  fashion  anew 
the  body  of  pur  humiliation,  that  it  may  be  conformed 
to  the  body  of  his  glory."  Then,  the  spirit  reunited 
with  the  risen  and  glorified  body,  "  so  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord." 

And  he  who  saved  them  will  be  ever  living  to  keep  them 
safe,  unto  all  eternity. 

My  friends,  how  shall  we  think  of  Jesus  ?  What 
conception  shall  we  cherish  of  him  whom,  "  having  not 
seen,  we  love,"  who  ever  liveth  to  intercede  for  us? 
Many  centuries  ago,  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Mount 
Olivet,  towards  Bethany,  twelve  men  stood  together,  one 
talking  to  the  others.  Presently  he  lifted  up  his  hands 
and  blessed  them ;  and  with  hands  still  uplifted,  and 

&OFFORD  COLLEGE  LIBRAh \ 


84  HE   EVER   LIVETH   TO   INTERCEDE. 

words  of  blessing  still  lingering  on  his  lips,  he  was 
parted  from  them  and  rose  toward  heaven,  till  a  cloud 
received  him  out  of  their  sight.  Years  passed,  and  one 
of  the  eleven  was  an  exile  on  a  lonely  island.  It  was 
the  Lord's  day,  and  he  was  in  the  Spirit.  Hearing  be- 
hind him  a  mighty  voice  that  seemed  to  call  him,  he 
turned,  and  lo  !  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man — it  was 
the  Saviour  who  had  been  parted  from  him  long  years 
before.  He  was  arrayed  in  robes  of  majesty,  and  girt 
about  with  a  golden  girdle ;  his  whole  head  shone  white 
as  snow  with  celestial  glory ;  his  eyes  were  as  a  flame  of 
fire ;  and  his  feet  like  unto  burnished  brass,  as  if  it  had 
been  refined  in  a  furnace ;  and  his  voice  as  the  voice  of 
many  waters  ;  and  his  countenance  as  the  sun  shineth 
in  his  strength.  Yes,  the  feet  that  once  wearily  trod  the 
dusty  roads  of  Judea  now  shone  like  molten  brass. 
The  eyes  that  were  full  of  tears  as  he  gazed  upon 
doomed  Jerusalem  now  gleamed  as  a  flame  of  fire.  The 
countenance  that  writhed  in  agony  as  he  lay  prostrate 
on  his  face  in  the  garden,  that  was  streaked  with  the 
blood  that  fell  from  his  thorn-pierced  brow,  was  now  as 
the  sun  shineth  in  his  strength.  And  the  voice  as  the 
voice  of  many  waters — it  was  the  same  voice  that  in 
gentleneas  and  love  had  so  often  encouraged  the  sinful 
and  sorrowing  to  draw  near — it  is  the  same  voice  that 
now  calls  us  to  come  unto  God  through  him,  and  de- 
clares that  he  is  able  to  save  us  completely,  since  he 
ever  lives  to  intercede  for  us.  O,  my  hearer,  slight  all 
the  sounds  of  earth,  all  the  voices  of  the  universe ;  be 
deaf  to  the  thunder's  mighty  tones,  and  stand  careless 
amid  "the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crush  of  worlds" — 
but  O,  slight  not  the  loving  voice  of  Jesus. 


VI. 

LET  US  HAVE  PEACE  WITH  GOD. 

Therefore  being  justified  by  faith,  let  us  have  peace  with  God,  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. — Romans  5 :  1. 

IT  is  nearly  four  centuries  ago  now,  that  a  young  pro- 
fessor from  the  north  of  Germany  went  to  Rome.  He 
was  a  man  of  considerable  learning  and  versatile  mind. 
Yet  he  did  not  go  to  Rome  to  survey  the  remains  of  an- 
tiquity or  the  treasures  of  modern  art.  He  went  to  Rome 
because  he  was  in  trouble  about  his  sins  and  could  find 
no  peace.  Having  been  educated  to  regard  Rome  as  the 
centre  of  the  Christian  world,  he  thought  he  would  go 
to  the  heart  of  things  and  see  what  he  could  there  find. 
He  had  reflected  somewhat  at  home,  and  had  talked 
with  other  men  more  advanced  than  himself,  on  the 
thought  that  the  just  shall  live  by  faith ;  but  still  that 
thought  had  never  taken  hold  of  him.  We  read — some 
of  you  remember  the  story  quite  well — how  one  day,  ac- 
cording to  the  strange  ideas  that  prevailed  and  still  pre- 
vail at  Rome,  he  went  climbing  up  a  stairway  on  his 
knees,  pausing  to  pray  on  every  step,  to  see  if  that  would 
not  help  him  about  his  sins.  Then,  as  he  climbed  slowly 
up,  he  seemed  to  hear  a  voice  echoing  down  the  stairway, 
"  The  just  shall  live  by  faith ;  the  just  shall  live  by 
faith."  And  so  he  left  alone  his  dead  works,  he  arose 
from  his  knees  and  went  down  the  stairway  to  his  home 

85 


8G  LET   US   HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD. 

to  think  about  that  great  saying:  "The  just  shall  live 
by  faith." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  with  such  an  experience,  and  such 
a  nature,  Martin  Luther  should  have  lived  to  shake  the 
Christian  world  with  the  thought  that  justification  by 
faith  is  the  great  doctrine  of  Christianity,  "  the  article 
of  a  standing  or  a  falling  church."  It  is  no  wonder  that 
John  Wesley,  rising  up  with  living  earnestness,  when 
England  was  covered  with  a  pall  of  spiritual  death,  should 
have  revived  the  same  thought — justification  by  faith. 

Yet  it  is  not  true  that  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  is  all  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  true  that  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  is  simply  one  of  the  several 
ways  by  which  the  Gospel  takes  hold  of  men.  You  do 
not  hear  anything  of  that  doctrine  in  the  Epistles  of 
John.  He  has  another  way  of  presenting  the  Gospel 
salvation,  namely,  that  we  must  love  Christ,  and  be  like 
him,  and  obey  him.  I  think  sometimes  that  Martin 
Luther  made  the  world  somewhat  one-sided  by  his  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith ;  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
Protestant  world  are  inclined  to  suppose  there  is  no  oth- 
er way  of  looking  on  the  Gospel.  There  are  very  like- 
ly some  here  to-day  who  would  be  more  impressed  by 
John's  way  of  presenting  the  matter;  but  probably  the 
majority  would  be  more  impressed  by  Paul's  way,  and 
it  is  our  business  to  present  now  this  and  now  that,  to 
present  first  one  side  and  then  the  other.  So  we  have 
here  before  us  to-day  Paul's  great  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  in  perhaps  one  of  his  most  striking  state- 
ments, "Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  let  us  have 
peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 


LET    US    HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD.  87 

My  friends,  we  talk  and  hear  about  these  Gospel 
truths,  and  repeat  these  Scripture  words,  and  never  stop 
to  ask  ourselves  whether  we  have  a  clear  idea  of  what 
is  meant.  What  does  Paul  mean,  when  he  talks  about 
being  justified  ?  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  misap- 
prehension as  to  his  meaning.  Martin  Luther  was  all 
wrong  in  his  early  life,  because  he  had  been  reared  up  in 
the  idea  that  a  justified  man  means  simply  a  just  man,  a 
good  man,  and  that  he  could  not  account  himself  justified 
or  hope  for  salvation  until  he  was  a  thoroughly  good  man. 
Now,  the  Latin  word  from  which  we  borrow  our  word 
" justified"  does  mean  to  make  just,  and  as  the  Roman- 
ists use  the  Latin,  their  error  is  natural.  But  Paul's 
Greek  word  means  not  to  make  just,  but  to  regard  as  just, 
to  treat  as  just.  That  is  a  very  important  difference, — 
not  to  make  just,  but  to  regard  and  treat  as  just.  How 
would  God  treat  you,  if  you  were  a  righteous  man  ;  if 
you  had,  through  all  your  life,  faithfully  performed  all 
your  duties,  conforming  to  all  your  relations  to  your 
fellow- beings, — how  would  he  regard  you  and  treat  you? 
He  would  look  upon  you  with  complacency.  He  would 
smile  on  you  as  one  that  was  in  his  sight  pleasing. 
He  would  bless  you  as  long  as  you  lived  in  this 
world,  and,  when  you  were  done  with  this  world,  he 
would  delight  to  take  you  home  to  his  bosom,  in 
another  world,  because  you  would  deserve  it.  And  now 
as  God  would  treat  a  man  who  was  just  because  he  de- 
served it,  so  the  Gospel  proposes  to  treat  men  who  are 
not  just  and  who  do  not  deserve  it,  if  they  believe  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  will  treat  them  as  just,  though 
they  are  not  just,  if  they  believe  in  Christ ;  that  is  to  say, 


88  LET   US   HAVE  PEACE   WITH   GOD. 

he  will  look  upon  them  with  his  favor;  he  will  smile 
upon  them  in  his  love ;  he  will  bless  them  with  everj 
good  as  long  as  they  live,  and  when  they  die  he  will 
delight  to  take  them  home  to  his  own  bosom,  though 
they  never  deserved  it,  through  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ. 
That  is  what  Paul  means  by  justification.  And  when 
Martin  Luther  found  that  out  he  found  peace.  This 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  had  always  stopped  his  progress 
when  reading  the  New  Testament.  He  would  read,  in 
the  Latin  version,  "For  therein  is  revealed  the  justice  of 
God/'  and  he  felt  in  his  heart  that  God's  justice  must 
condemn  him.  But  now  he  came  to  see  what  was  really 
meant  by  the  righteousness  of  God,  the  righteousness 
which  God  provides  and  bestows  on  the  believer  in  Je- 
sus. A  sinful  man,  an  undeserving  man,  may  get  God 
Almighty's  forgiveness  and  favor  and  love,  may  be  re- 
garded with  complacency  and  delight,  though  he  does 
not  deserve  it,  if  he  believes  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
That  is  justification  by  faith. 

It  is  one  thing  to  take  hold  of  this  matter  in  the  way 
of  doctrinal  conception  and  expression,  and  of  course, 
God  be  thanked !  it  is  another  thing  to  receive  it  in  the 
heart.  There  are  many  people  who  get  hold  of  it  all  in 
the  heart  with  trust  and  peace  that  never  have  a  correct 
conception  of  it  as  a  doctrine.  Yet  I  suppose  it  is  worth 
while  that  we  should  endeavor  to  see  these  things  clear- 
ly. Other  things  being  equal,  they  will  be  the  holiest 
and  most  useful  Christians  who  have  the  clearest  per- 
ception of  the  great  facts  and  truths  of  the  Gospel.  So 
I  recommend  to  you  that  whenever  any  one  tries  to  ex- 
plain to  you  one  of  these  great  doctrinal  truths,  you 


LET   US   HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD.  89 

shall  listen  with  fixed  attention  and  see  if  you  cannot 
get  a  clearer  view  of  the  Gospel  teachings  on  that  subject, 
for  it  will  do  you  good. 

Now  let  us  come  to  the  second  thought  here,  viz. : 
being  justified  by  faith.  A  man  might  say,  if  God  pro- 
poses to  deal  with  those  who  are  not  just,  as  if  they  were, 
why  does  he  condition  it  upon  their  believing  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Why  cannot  God  proclaim  a 
universal  amnesty  at  once,  and  be  done  with  it,  to  all 
his  sinful,  weak  children,  and  treat  them  all  as  if  they 
were  just,  without  their  believing?  I  don't  think  this  is 
hard  to  see.  God  does  not  merely  propose  to  deal  with 
us  for  the  time  being  as  if  we  were  just,  but  he  proposes 
in  tne  end  to  make  us  actually  just.  It  would  be  an  un- 
satisfactory salvation  to  a  right-minded  man  if  God 
proposed  merely  to  exempt  us  from  the  consequences  of 
our  sins  and  not  to  deliver  us  from  our  sins.  You  do 
not  want  merely  to  escape  punishment  for  sin  without 
ever  becoming  good ;  you  want  to  be  righteous  and  holy; 
you  want  to  be  delivered  from  sin  itself  as  well  as  from 
the  consequences  of  sin.  And  this  Gospel,  which  begins 
by  its  proclamation  that  God  is  willing  to  treat  men  as 
just,  although  they  are  not  just,  does  not  stop  there.  It 
proposes  to  be  the  means  by  which  God  will  take  hold 
of  men's  characters  and  make  them  just,  make  them 
holy.  You  may,  for  the  moment,  conceive  of  such  a 
thing  as  -that  God  should  make  a  proclamation  of 
universal  amnesty,  and  treat  all  men  as  if  they  were 
just ;  but  that  would  not  make  them  any  better.  The 
Gospel  is  not  merely  to  deliver  us  from  the  consequences 
of  sin,  but  to  deliver  us  from  the  power  of  sin.  You 


90  LET   US   HAVE   PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

can  conceive  of  an  amnesty  as  to  the  consequences  of  sin, 
which  should  extend  to  persons  that  will  not  even 
believe  there  is  such  an  amnesty ;  but  you  cannot  see 
how  the  Gospel  is  to  have  any  power  in  delivering  us 
from  the  dominion  of  sin,  unless  we  believe  the  Gospel. 
It  can  do  so  only  through  belief.  Therefore  it  is  not 
possible  that  a  man  should  be  justified  without  belief. 
I  think  it  is  useful  that  we  should  thus  try  to  see  that 
this  is  not  a  matter  of  mere  arbitrary  appointment  on 
the  part  of  the  Sovereign  Power  of  the  Universe,  but 
that  the  condition  is  necessary — that  it  cannot  be  other- 
wise. "Being  justified  by  faith,"  it  reads;  and  we  can- 
not be  justified  without  faith,  because  the  same  Gospel  is 
also  to  take  hold  of  us  and  make  us  just. 

And  now,  some  one  who  feels  a  little  freshened  inter- 
est in  this  subject,  some  man  who  has  never  got  hold  of 
the  Gospel  faith  says  to  himself:  "  I  wonder  if  the 
preacher  is  going  to  explain  to  me  what  believing  is, 
what  faith  is.  I  never  heard  any  one  succeed  in  explain- 
ing faith."  Well,  if  you  will  pardon  me,  the  best  ex- 
planation of  faith  I  ever  heard  was  given  by  a  negro 
preacher  in  Virginia.  As  the  story  was  told  me,  one 
Sunday  afternoon,  a  few  years  ago,  some  of  them  were 
lying  on  the  ground  together,  and  one  of  them  spoke  and 
said,  "  Uncle  Reuben,  can  you  explain  this  :  Faith  in  de 
Lord, and  faith  in  dedebbil."  "To  be  sure  I  can.  There 
is  two  things :  in  de  fust  place,  faith  in  de  Lord,  and  then 
faith  in  de  debbil.  Now,  in  the  fust  place,  fustly,  there 
is  faith.  What  is  faith  ?  What  is  faith  ?  Why,  faith 
is  jes  faith.  Faith  ain't  nothing  less  than  faith.  Faith 
ain't  nothing  more  than  faith.  Faith  is  jes  faith — now 


LET    US    HAVE    PEACE    WITH    GOD.  91 

I  done  splain  it."  Really,  that  man  was  right,  there  is 
nothing  to  explain.  Faith  is  as  simple  a  conception  as 
the  human  mind  can  have.  How,  then,  can  you  explain 
faith  ?  You  are  neither  able  to  analyze  it  into  parts, 
nor  can  you  find  anything  simpler  with  which  to  com- 
pare it.  So*  also  as  to  some  other  things,  that  are  per- 
fectly easy  and  natural  in  practical  exercise,  and  cannot 
be  explained.  What  is  love  ?  Well,  I  won't  go  into  an 
elaborate  metaphysical  definition  of  love,  but  if  I 
wanted  a  child  to  love  me,  I  should  try  to  exhibit  my- 
self in  such  a  character  to  him  and  act  in  such  ways  that 
the  little  child  would  see  in  me  something  to  love,  and 
would  feel  like  loving.  There  would  then  be  no  need 
of  an  explanation  of  what  love  is  Did  you  ever  hear 
a  satisfactory  definition  of  laughter  ?  If  you  wanted  to 
make  a  man  laugh,  would  you  attempt  to  define  laughter 
to  him?  You  might  possibly  succeed  in  making  a 
laughable  definition ;  but  otherwise  definitions  won't 
make  a  man  laugh.  You  would  simply  say  or  do  some- 
thing ludicrous,  and  he  would  laugh  readily  enough  if 
he  was  so  disposed  ;  and  if  the  man  be  not  in  a  mood 
for  laughing,  all  your  explanations  are  utterly  useless. 
And  so  what  is  faith  ?  There  is  nothing  to  explain. 
Everybody  knows  what  faith  is.  If  you  want  to  induce 
a  man  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  you  must 
hold  up  the  Lord  to  him  in  his  true  character,  and 
then,  if  he  is  in  a  mood  to  believe,  he  will  believe,  and 
if  he  is  disinclined  to  belief,  all  your  explanations  will 
be  fruitless.  The  practical  result  may  even  be  ob- 
structed by  attempts  to  explain.  What  is  faith?  You 
know  what  faith  is.  Every  one  knows. 


92  LET   US   HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD. 

Well,  then,  a  man  might  say,  "  If  you  mean  by  faith 
in  the  Lord,  the  simple  idea  of  believing  what  the 
Scripture  says  concerning  him,  the  idea  of  believing  its 
teachings  about  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be  true,  if  that 
is  what  faith  means,  then  all  of  us  are  believers,  all  have 
faith."  I  am  afraid  not.  I  am  afraid  there  are  some 
here  who  have  not  faith.  Has  a  man  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  who  simply  does  not  disbelieve  in  him? 
I  may  not  deny  that  what  the  Gospel  says  is  true,  but 
is  that  believing  ?  Yonder  sits  a  gentleman  ;  suppose 
some  one  should  come  hastily  up  the  aisle,  calling  his 
name,  and  say,  "  Your  house  is  afire."  The  gentleman 
sits  perfectly  quiet  and  looks  unconcerned,  as  people  so 
often  do  when  listening  to  preaching.  The  man  repeats 
it :  "I  say  your  house  is  afire.".  But  still  he  sits  in  his 
place.  Some  one  near  him  says,  "  You  hear  what  that 
man  says.  Do  you  believe  it?"  "Yes,  I  believe  it," 
he  carelessly  replies,  and  does  not  stir.  You  would 
all  say,  "  The  man  is  insane,  or  certainly  he  does  not 
believe  it ;  for  if  he  did,  he  would  not  sit  perfectly  still 
and  remain  perfectly  unconcerned."  Even  so  when  the 
preacher  speaks  of  sin  and  guilt  and  ruin,  of  God's 
wrath  and  the  fire  that  is  not  quenched ;  or  when  he 
stands  with  joyful  face  and  proclaims  to  his  hearers  that 
for  their  sin  and  ruin  there  is  a  Saviour ;  and  they  say 
they  believe,  and  yet  look  as  if  it  were  of  no  concern  to 
them  at  all,  at  all ;  then  I  say  they  do  not  believe  it — 
the  thing  is  not  possible.  They  may  not  disbelieve  it ; 
they  may  not  care  to  make  an  attempt  to  overturn  it; 
they  may  be  in  a  sort  of  negative  mood ;  but  they  do 
not  believe  it.  With  that  statement  I  suppose  there  are 


LET   US   HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD.  93 

a  great  many  of  us  who  concur  and  who  will  at  once 
say,  "Often  I  fear  that  I  do  not  really  believe  it.  If  I 
did  believe  it,  the  Gospel  would  have  more  power  over 
my  heart  and  more  power  over  my  life  than  it  does  have. 
And  what,  oh,  what  shall  I  do  ?  "  The  preacher  has  to 
remind  you  of  that  father  to  whom  the  Saviour  came 
when  the  disciples  had  tried  in  vain  to  heal  his  suffering 
child.  Jesus  said  to  him  :  "  All  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth ;"  and  he  replied  :  "  I  believe ;  help  thou 
my  unbelief."  That  should  be  your  cry  :  "  I  believe ; 
help  thou  my  unbelief."  The  man  would  not  deny  that 
he  believed,  and  yet  felt  bound  to  add  that  he  knew  he 
did  not  believe  as  he  ought  to.  Now  the  comfort  is,  that 
he  who  sees  all  hearts  accepted  that  man's  confessedly 
imperfect  faith,  and  granted  his  request.  That  has  often 
been  the  preacher's  comfort  as  he  uttered  the  same  cry, 
"I  believe;  help  thou  my  unbelief;"  and  God  give  it 
as  a  comfort  to  you  !  But  do  not  content  yourself  with 
such  a  state  of  things,  with  any  such  feeble,  half-way 
believing.  Nay,  let  us  cherish  all  that  tends  to  strengthen 
our  faith  in  the  Gospel ;  let  us  read  the  Word  of  God, 
praying  that  we  may  be  able  to  believe ;  let  us  say  from 
day  to  day,  as  the  disciples  said  :  "  Lord,  increase  our 
faith." 

The  text  proceeds  :  "  Therefore,  being  justified  by 
faith,  let  us  have  peace  with  God."  Instead  of  the 
declaration,  "  We  have  peace  with  God,"  the  best 
authorities  for  the  text  make  it  an  exhortation,  "  Let  us 
have  peace  with  God ; "  and  so  the  Revised  Version 
reads.  Some  critics  admit  that  the  documents  require 
us  so  to  read,  but  say  that  they  can  see  no  propriety  in 


94  LET   US   HAVE   PEACE    WITH   GOD. 

an  exhortation  at  this  point — that  it  seems  much  more 
appropriate  to  understand  the  apostle  as  asserting  a  fact. 
Yet  I  think  we  can  see  moaning  and  fitness  in  the  text 
as  corrected:  "Being  justified  by  faith,  let  us  have 
peace  with  God." 

Let  us  have  peace  with  God,  notwithstanding  our 
unworthiness.  My  friends,  we  cannot  have  peace  with 
God  so  long  as  we  cling  to  the  notion  that  we  are  going 
to  deserve  it.  Just  there  is  the  difficulty  with  many  of 
those  who  are  trying  to  be  at  peace  with  God.  They 
have  been  clinging  to  the  thought  that  they  must  first 
become  worthy,  and  then  become  reconciled  to  God ;  and 
they  will  have  to  see  more  clearly  that  they  must  come 
to  Christ  in  order  that,  being  reconciled,  they  may  be 
made  good,  may  become  worthy.  We  may  say  there 
are  two  conceivable  ways  to  have  peace  with  God.  It 
is  conceivable  to  have  peace  with  God  through  our  wor- 
thiness, and  it  is  conceivable  and  also  practicable  to 
have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
though  we  be  unworthy.  Then  let  us  have  peace  with 
him,  although  so  unworthy,  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

Again,  let  us  have  peace  with  God,  though  we  are 
still  sinful  and  unholy,  though  we  know  we  come  far 
short  in  character  and  in  life  of  what  God's  children 
ought  to  be.  We  must  be,  ought  to  be,  intensely  dis- 
satisfied with  ourselves ;  but  let  us  be  satisfied  with 
our  Saviour,  and  have  peace  with  God  through  him ; 
not  content  with  the  idea  of  remaining  such  as  we  are, 
but,  seeing  that  the  same  Gospel  which  offers  us  forgive- 
ness and  acceptance  offers  us  also  a  genuine  renewal 


LET   US   HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD.  95 

through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  promises  that  finally 
we  shall  be  made  holy,  as  God  is  holy,  shall  indeed  be 
perfect,  as  our  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect.  Let  us  re- 
joice in  the  gracious  promise  of  that  perfect  life,  and, 
while  seeking  to  be  what  we  ought  to  be,  let  us  have 
peace  with  God.  Our  sanetification  is  still  sadly  im- 
perfect— the  best  of  us  well  know  that,  and  probably 
the  best  of  us  feel  it  most  deeply ;  but,  if  we  believe  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  our  justification  is  perfect.  We 
can  never  be  more  justified  than  we  are  now  justified, 
though  we  shall  be  more  and  more  made  holy  as  long 
as  we  live,  and  at  last  made  perfectly  holy  as  we  pass 
into  the  perfect  world.  My  brethren,  do  think  more 
and  talk  more  of  that.  It  is  an  intensely  practical  mat- 
ter, not  only  for  your  comfort  but  for  the  strength  of 
your  life.  If  we  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
although  we  are  painfully  conscious  that  we  are  far  from 
being  in  character  and  life  what  we  ought  to  be,  yet, 
through  the  perfect  justification  which  we  have  at  once, 
we  shall  in  the  end  by  his  grace  be  made  perfectly  holy. 
Let  us  have  peace  with  God,  though  we  have  per- 
petual conflict  with  sin.  What  a  singular  idea  !  Peace 
with  God,  and  yet  conflict,  yes,  perpetual  conflict,  with 
a  thousand  forms  of  temptation  to  sin,  temptations 
springing  from  our  fellow-men,  and  temptations  spring- 
ing from  spiritual  tempters — perpetual  conflict,  and  yet 
peace  with  God.  Is  not  that  conceivable  ?  Is  not  that 
possible  ?  In  this  conflict  we  are  on  the  Lord's  side ;  in 
this  conflict  the  Lord  is  on  our  side ;  and  so,  though 
the  battle  must  be  waged  against  every  form  of  sin,  we 
may  have  peace  with  God. 


96  LET   US   HAVE   PEACE   WITH   GOD. 

And  finally,  let  us  have  peace  with  God  though  he 
leaves  us  to  suffer  a  thousand  forms  of  distress  and  trial. 
"  Let  us  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whom  also  we  have  had  our  access  by  faith 
into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand  :  and  let  us  rejoice  in 
hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  And  not  only  so,  but  let  us 
also  rejoice  in  our  tribulations ;  knowing  that  tribulation 
worketh  patience ;  and  patience,  proving ;  and  proving, 
hope ;  and  hope  maketh  not  ashamed,  because  the  love  ot 
God  hath  been  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  through  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  was  given  unto  us."  Surely  man  may 
have  peace  with  God,  though  he  be  left  to  suffer.  For 
none  of  these  things  can  separate  us  from  God's  love. 
Who  shall  separate  us  from  Christ's  love?  "  For  I  am 
persuaded  that  neither  death  nor  life,  neither  angels  nor 
principalities  nor  powers,  neither  things  present  nor 
things  to  come,  neither  height  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  When  we  are  in. 
trouble,  let  us  take  fast  hold  upon  that  great  thought,  that 
trouble  does  not  divide  us  from  the  love  of  God.  Yea, 
God's  peace  can  conquer  trouble,  and  guard  us,  as  in  a 
fortress,  against  its  assaults.  "  In  nothing  be  anxious  ; 
but  in  everything,  by  prayer  and  supplication,  with 
thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God.  And  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  under- 
standing, shall  guard  your  hearts  and  your  thoughts  in 
Christ  Jesus." 


VII. 

HOW  THE  GOSPEL  MAKES  MEN  HOLY. 

O  wretched  man  that  lam  !  who  shall  deliver  me  out  of  the  body  o  f  this 
death  ?  I  thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  —  Bom.  7  :  24,  25. 


language  is  intensely  passionate,  —  "  O  wretched 
-*-  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  out  of  the  body 
of  this  death  ?  "  Then  with  the  sudden  transition  of 
passion,  "  I  thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 
"How  shall  I  be  good?"  is  a  question  that  used 
sometimes  to  rise  in  your  mind  when  you  were  a  child, 
sometimes  when  nobody  would  imagine  you  were  think- 
ing of  such  things  as  that.  "  How  shall  I  get  to  be 
good."  And  it  is  a  question  which,  amid  all  the  com- 
motion of  this  runaway  life  of  ours,  comes  back  to  us 
very  often,  comes  back  even  to  people  whom  you  would 
not  suppose  to  be  thinking  of  such  things  at  all.  The 
grossly  wicked  men,  the  men  vho  are  the  slaves  of  vice, 
many  of  them,  perhaps  all  of  them,  have  their  moments 
when  there  is  a  sort  of  longing  that  rises  in  their  souls 
to  be  good,  and  when  the  hope  rel  urns,  indestructible,  that 
somehow  or  other  they  will  get  to  be  good  after  all.  It 
became  a  sort  of  jest  a  few  years  ago,  I  know,  to  speak 
of  "  the  wickedest  man  in  New  York,"  but  -I  wonder 
sometimes  if  the  wickedest  man  —  whoever  he  might  hap- 
pen to  be,  considered  as  God  considers—  does  not  some- 
times want  to  be  good. 

7  97 


98  HOW  THE  GOSPEL  MAKES   MEN   HOLY. 

For  many  of  us  it  has  been  much  more  than  a  vague 
longing  that  comes  back  again  and  again.  It  has  been 
an  earnest  effort,  sometimes  a  fearful  struggle,  when  we 
have  been  trying  to  be  good,  and  we  have  wondered 
whether  something  would  not  come  in  the  course  of  the 
varied  experiences  of  life,  that  would  render  it  easier  for 
us  to  conquer  in  this  struggle,  easier  to  become  good. 
As  a  man  lives  on,  he  cannot  help  thinking — it  is  so 
hard  now — he  cannot  help  thinking  it  will  become  easier 
to  be  good.  And  when  changes  occur  in  his  outward 
life  he  hopes  now  to  find  it  easier.  He  sets  up  a  new 
home,  it  may  be,  and  has  a  vague  feeling  that  there  he 
will  be  able  to  be  good.  He  marries  a  pious  woman, 
may  be,  and  although  he  may  not  say  a  word  about  it, 
he  has  a  sort  of  notion  that  perhaps  that  will  be  blessed 
to  him,  and  he  will  become  pious  too.  He  loses  a  par- 
ent whom  he  leaned  on,  maybe  he  loses  a  little  child 
that  lay  in  his  bosom,  and  amid  the  strange  feelings  that 
rise  up  then,  and  which  he  would  not  tell  any  one  about, 
he  thinks,  "  Now  surely  I  shall  become  good."  And  so,  as 
the  experiences  of  life  come  and  go,  men  still  hope  to  be 
good.  Who  is  there  here  to-day  that  does  not  hope  to 
be  good  ?  Who  is  there  here  to-day  that  at  this  solemn 
moment,  when  we  are  thinking  about  the  soul  and  its 
immortality,  does  not  feel  that  to  be  good  is  the  loftiest 
human  aspiration  and  the  best  earthly  attainment  ?  O 
tell  me,  do  you  not  feel  it  ? 

Now  I  have  something  to  say  about  this  great  ques- 
tion ;  not  to  cite  my  own  experience  nor  to  give  my  own 
ideas,  but  I  want  to  get  your  attention  fixed  on  the 
apostle  Paul's  account  of  this  matter,  including  some 


HOW    THE   GOSPEL    MAKES    MEN    HOLY.  99 

details  of  his  own  experience  about  it.  Let  us  see  how 
he  treats  the  question.  Here,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ro- 
mans, the  early  chapters  of  the  Epistle  are  occupied  with 
what  we  call  justification  by  faith,  telling  how,  by  be- 
lieving in  Jesus  Christ,  a  man  may  be  justified — that  is, 
may  be  regarded  and  treated  in  the  sight  of  God's  law 
as  if  he  were  a  just  man.  And  then  the  next  question 
that  will  arise  to  any  reflecting  mind,  and  which  the 
apostle  at  once  thought  of,  is,  Ah !  but  how  does  this 
bear  on  the  matter  of  making  a  man  good,  in  his  real 
personal  character  ?  It  looks  at  first  like  a  sort  of  legal 
fiction,  the  idea  of  considering  a  man  as  just  in  the  sight 
of  God's  law,  though  he  is  not  just,  because  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  whom  he  believes.  And  then  remains  the 
question  how  a  man  is  to  be  made  righteous  in  his  own 
character,  how  he  is  to  be  made  holy.  Many  persons 
say  that  this  is  the  weak  point  of  the  Gospel,  that  the 
Gospel  tends  to  lessen  the  inducements  to  seek  personal 
holiness,  by  undertaking  to  make  a  man  just  simply  upon 
believing,  by  offering  him  amnesty.  They  talk  as  if  the 
Gospel  offer  of  free  pardon  for  somebody  else's  sake, 
yea,  and  of  title  to  everlasting  life  for  somebody  else's 
sake,  were  an  encouragement  to  do  wrong.  There  are 
many  men  holding  the  subject  at  arm's  length  who  main- 
tain that  the  Gospel  tends  to  prevent  us  from  trying  to 
do  right  by  thus  offering  salvation  gratuitously. 

Now  the  apostle  Paul  goes  on  to  show  in  the  first 
place  the  absurdity  of  such  an  idea ;  to  show  that  when 
men  talk  as  if  it  were  a  small  thing  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  the  Lord,  they  don't  understand  what  they  are 
talking  about.  He  shows  by  several  different  illustra- 


100          HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES   MEN    HOLY. 

live  arguments  that  if  a  man  believes  in  Jesus  Christ, 
that  means  something;  that  it  means  a  power  in  his  life, 
that  it  involves  a  change  in  his  inner  character.  He  says 
first  that  if  we  are  believers,  we  are  dead  to  sin  and  have 
risen  to  a  new  life.  He  reminds  his  readers  that  this 
great  thought  was  symbolized  by  that  affecting  ceremony 
in  which  they  entered  upon  the  professed  life  of  a  Chris- 
tian. "  Know  ye  not  that  so  many  of  us  as  were  bap- 
tized unto  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  unto  his  death  ?  " 
Our  baptism  referred  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  don't  you 
know  that  it  referred  especially  to  his  death  and  resur- 
rection ?  "  That  like  as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead 
by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also  should  walk 
in  newness  of  life."  Do  you  not  know  that  your  bap- 
tism, at  the  outset  of  your  Christian  life,  meant  that  you 
had  died  to  sin  and  risen  up  from  a  grave  like  the  sym- 
bolic grave  in  the  waters,  and  that  you  were  henceforth 
to  walk  in  newness  of  life  ? 

Then  he  takes  a  second  illustration.  We  were  slaves 
to  sin;  but  now,  by  believing  in  Jesus  Christ,  we  have 
changed  masters;  we  have  become,  so  "to  speak,  the 
slaves  of  holiness,  the  slaves,  as  it  were,  of  God.  We 
have  a  new  Master,  and  we  shall  render  service  to  him. 
If  a  man  is  a  believer,  it  means  something.  It  means 
that  he  has  changed  masters.  And  yet  again  he  says 
the  case  is  like  that  of  a  woman  whose  husband  died, 
and  who  is  now  married  to  a  new  husband ;  the  children 
she  now  bears  are  no  longer  the  children  of  the  old  hus- 
band, but  of  the  new.  If  we  are  believers,  we  are  in- 
deed dead  to  the  law ;  but  we  are  married  to  Christ,  and 
the  fruit  of  our  life  is  to  be  borne  to  him. 


HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES   MEN   HOLY.  101 

So,  then,  if  anybody  ever  tells  you  that  this  Gospel 
of  free  grace  is  an  encouragement  to  men  to  do  wrong, 
tell  him  it  cannot  be  so  for  a  man  who  believes  this  Gos- 
pel, for  that  means  something. 

But  the  apostle  by  no  means  stops  at  that.  Not  only 
is  it  absurd  to  say  that  salvation  by  grace  will  en- 
courage a  man  to  do  wrong,  but  justification  by  faith, 
salvation  by  grace,  furnishes  the  only  way  in  which  a 
man  can  really  become  holy.  The  apostle  shows  this 
negatively  and  then  positively.  In  this  remarkable 
passage  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Romans,  over  which 
so  many  religious  controversies  have  been  waged,  and 
over  which — what  is  ten  thousand  times  better  than 
religious  controversies — have  bent  many  troubled,  yet 
trusting  hearts  as  they  found  themselves  exactly  por- 
trayed— in  this  passage  the  apostle  first  points  out  what 
is  the  best  that  the  law  can  do  to  make  a  man  holy. 
What  is  the  best  that  a  man  can  do  in  the  way  of  be- 
coming holy,  by  just  trying  to  do  right,  simply  trying, 
in  his  own  strength,  to  do  what  he  learns  from  God's 
law  to  be  right?  There  are  people  who  are  trying  to  do 
that,  some  of  them  honest  in  it,  some  of  them  very  ear- 
nest. They  have  got  their  notion  as  to  what  is  right, 
and  are  trying  to  do  right.  Some  of  them  look  in  the 
word  of  God ;  they  push  aside  what  they  call  its  mys- 
teries and  all  matters  pertaining  to  doctrine,  and  take 
out  of  it  only  its  rules  of  right,  and  they  say:  "Now  I 
am  trying  to  live  according  to  these  rules  of  right." 
What  is  the  best  they  can  do?  Here  is  the  apostle's 
answer. 

In  the  first  place,  he  says,  God's  law,  which  is  holy 


102          HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES   MEN    HOLY. 

and  just  and  good,  will  make  a  man  see  how  bad  he  is. 
The  child  yonder  will  perhaps  know  what  is  meant  by 
a  plummet,  and  may  have  seen  a  man  building  on  a 
wall  and  hanging  down  his  plummet  to  see  if  his  wall 
was  perpendicular.  "And  judgment  I  have  set  to  the 
line,  and  righteousness  to  the  plummet."  God's  word 
applied  to  a  man's  life  will  help  him  to  see  whether  he 
has  been  upright.  Or  the  law  of  God  is  like  a  car- 
penter's straight  edge,  and,  laid  on  his  character,  will 
enable  him  to  see  where  his  character  deviates  from  rec- 
titude. Ah,  me!  whosoever  will  honestly  apply  this 
test,  the  result  will  be  a  deep  and  painful  consciousness 
that  he  does  not  come  up  to  it. 

But  more  than  that  happens.  By  the  strange  per- 
versity of  human  nature,  through  the  terrible  sinfulness 
of  sin,  God's  law  not  only  makes  us  see  how  bad  we 
are,  but  actually  makes  us  worse.  This  is  the  thought 
that  startles  us  here.  God's  law  makes  us  worse  in- 
stead of  making  us  better.  It  stimulates  sinful  ness  by 
restraint.  Have  you  not  often  observed  how  restraint 
stimulates  men  to  act  contrary  to  it  ?  Not  long  ago  a 
lad  of  my  acquaintance  was  talked  to  by  his  father 
about  smoking,  with  an  earnest  request  that  he  would 
not  form  the  habit.  Afterwards  he  said  to  his  mother, 
"  I  am  so  glad  that  papa  did  not  say  I  must  not  smoke, 
for  if  he  had  said  I  must  not  smoke,  I  could  not  have 
kept  from  it,  but  he  simply  said  he  wished  I  would  not ; 
I  am  so  glad."  There  was  a  great  deal  of  human  nature 
in  that. 

There  is  a  story  of  an  old  woman  in  one  of  the  Ger- 
man towns  who  had  lived  to  be  seventy  years  old  with- 


HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES    MEN    HOLY.  103 

out  going  outside  the  ancient  wall  of  the  city.  The 
fact  was  told  to  the  Grand  Duke,  who  sent  the  old  lady 
word  that  he  wished  the  fact  to  go  down  to  history  and 
begged  she  would  be  sure  and  not  go  out  during  the  rest 
of  her  life.  You  may  know  what  would  happen.  She 
got  to  thinking  about  it,  and  in  a  short  time  she  went 
out.  But,  alas !  not  merely  in  ludicrous  ways  does  this 
propensity  of  ours  show  itself,  but  in  terrible  earnest. 
The  more  a  man  knows  something  is  wrong,  sometimes 
the  more  it  seems  he  cannot  help  doing  it.  If  you 
should  go  into  a  darkened  room,  that  had  long  been  shut 
up,  and  with  a  broom  should  begin  to  clean  it  out,  there 
might  be  a  nest  of  vipers  in  one  corner  lying  still  in  the 
darkness,  but  when  you  disturbed  them  they  would 
thrust  out  their  forked  tongues  and  hiss  and  threaten  to 
destroy  you.  So  when  God's  law  comes  with  its  de- 
mand upon  us  to  clean  out  the  sin  from  our  souls,  how 
our  sinful  propensities,  that  were  asleep  maybe,  will  wake 
up  and  threaten  us!  The  apostle  says,  "I  was  alive 
without  the  law  once — I  thought  I  was  leading  a  true 
spiritual  life  and  that  I  was  a  good  man — but  when  the 
commandment  came  to  me,  sin  revived  (came  to  life 
again),  and  I  died.  I  saw  that  all  my  spirituality  was 
nothing,  I  was  not  a  good  man  at  all." 

Is  this  the  fault  of  the  law  of  God  ?  Paul  says, 
No ;  the  law  of  God  is  all  right ;  the  commandment 
of  God  is  holy  and  just  and  good — the  law  is  just  as 
good  as  it  can  be,  it  is  God's  own  law.  It  is  not  the 
fault  of  the  law,  it  is  the  fault  of  sin.  And  this  shows 
what  a  terrible  thing  sin  is,  that  it  takes  the  very  rule  of 
God  that  is  given  to  direct  our  life,  and  perverts  it  into 


ffOFFORD  COLLEGE  LIBRAE 


104          HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES   MEN    HOLY. 

the  occasion  of  doing  worse — "  that  sin  by  the  command- 
ment might  become  exceeding  sinful."  Ah,  when  God 
has  reached  down  to  this  sin-ruined  world  of  ours  and 
given  his  own  rule  of  what  is  right,  men  take  that  and 
pervert  it  and  become  worse  than  they  would  have  been 
without  it.  Does  not  sin  thus  show  itself  to  be  exceed- 
ing sinful  ?  So  the  result  is  that  man  finds  in  himself 
a  struggle  which  the  apostle  himself  describes;  there 
rise  up  desires  to  do  right,  and  then  there  arise  sinful 
dispositions,  contrary  to  God's  law;  and  these  stimu- 
late one  another  until  sometimes  his  whole  bosom  is  a 
battle-field. 

Ah  !  the  battle-fields  in  human  bosoms  !  Do  you 
know  what  it  means  ?  Don't  you  know  ?  That  is  what 
the  apostle  proceeds  to  describe.  "What  I  want  to  do," 
he  says,  "  I  do  not  do,  and  what  I  don't  want  to  do  I 
keep  doing.  I  am  fighting  against  myself;  there  are 
good  tendencies  in  me,  but  there  are  evil  tendencies  in 
me,  and  I  war,  and  I  struggle,  and  I  wrestle — O 
wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this  death  ?  "  That  is  the  climax  ;  that  is  the 
highest  that  ever  soul  of  man  reached  on  earth  in  trying 
to  be  good  in  his  own  strength — to  come  up  to  such  an 
intensity  of  fearful,  painful  struggle  that  he  would  cry 
out  in  the  agony  of  utmost  desperation,  "  O  wretched, 
wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  ?  "  Does 
any  one  sit  coolly  here  to-day  and  say  there  is  a  touch  of 
extravagance  there  ?  Well,  it  is  the  apostle's  extrava- 
gance. And  oh,  the  more  a  man  strives  to  be  what  he 
ought  to  be,  while  losing  sight  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  more  he  will  find  himself  in  sympathy 


HOW   THE    GOSPEL    MAKES    MEN    HOLY.  105 

with  that  wild,  passionate  cry  of  a  struggling,  tortured 
soul. 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  controversy  between 
what  are  called  Calvinists  and  what  are  called  Arminians, 
as  to  whether  this  passage  I  have  just  been  speaking  of 
gives  the  experience  of  a  renewed  man  or  of  an  unre- 
newed  man.  I  think  the  truth  is,  as  some  recent  writers 
have  been  showing,  that  it  does  not  really  give  either, 
but  gives  the  experience  of  any  man,  either  renewed  or 
unrenewed,  who  is  looking  to  the  law  to  make  him  holy. 
Renewed  men  often  fall  back  upon  that.  They  lose  the 
firm  hold  on  justification  by  faith,  and  they  get  to  think- 
ing to  save  themselves,  to  make  themselves  holy  by  their 
own  merit.  Then  no  wonder  they  fall  down  in  despond- 
ency and  almost  in  despair.  Unrenewed  men,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  often  trying  to  do  right  according  to 
what  they  see  to  be  right — according  to  their  own  knowl- 
edge of  God's  word.  And  any  man  who  tries  to  be 
holy  in  his  own  strength,  this  is  his  experience.  Such  a 
conflict  there  is  in  the  bosoms  of  men,  and  of  the  best 
men,  yea,  a  battle-field  in  every  bosom  here  on  earth. 
Nowhere  is  sin  completely  triumphant,  and  nowhere, 
yet,  has  holiness  completely  triumphed.  But,  oh  !  the 
difference  between  those  beaten  back  on  the  field  of  bat- 
tle, beaten  back  and  ever  back,  who  can  see  no  hope  of 
aught  but  destruction,  unless  something  strange  they  can- 
not anticipate  should  occur,  and  those  who  triumphantly 
rely  on  the  help  of  God,  and  are  certain  of  success.  O 
the  difference!  And  so  Paul  breaks  forth,  "I  thank 
God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." 

Let  us  then  turn  to  the  other  thought  of  the  apostle, 


106          HOW   THE   GOSPEL    MAKES   MEN    HOLY. 

as  to  what  the  gospel  can  do  towards  making  a  man  holy. 
He  makes  three  points  about  this. 

First,  the  gospel  sets  a  man  free  from  condemnation, 
because  of  his  past  sin.  "  There  is  therefore  now  no 
condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  The 
first  thought  of  a  man  who  begins  to  think  of  leading  a 
new  life  is,  "  What  am  I  to  do  with  all  these  sins  I  have 
already  committed  ?  "  But  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
frees  us  from  the  guilt  of  sin,  from  condemnation  because 
of  our  sin.  There  is  now  no  condemnation.  The  gos- 
pel comes  to  the  ruined  debtor  to  pay  all  his  debts  in  a 
moment ;  it  comes  to  the  prisoner  to  break  the  bonds 
that  bound  him  and  to  open  the  doors  of  his  prison  and 
set  him  free. 

And  then,  in  the  next  place,  the  gospel  comes  with  a 
new  moral  power.  The  apostle  speaks  of  a  third  law 
that  comes  in  like  a  reinforcement :  "  But  the  law  of  the 
spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  emancipated  me  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  death."  This  new  reinforcing  power 
is  the  Spirit  of  God.  He  calls  it  the  law  of  the  Spirit. 
The  law  of  God  and  the  law  in  our  members  are  in 
fierce  conflict,  and  there  comes  a  new  moral  power  to 
give  us  the  victory.  My  brethren,  we  do  not  preach  as 
much  as  we  ought,  nor  think  half  as  much  as  we  ought, 
about  the  Spirit  of  God.  I  do  not  want  you  to  talk 
less  or  think  less  of  the  atoning  death,  or  the  interceding 
life,  or  the  tender  sympathy,  or  the  beautiful  example, 
or  the  divine  power  of  the  divine  Redeemer ;  not  less  of 
that,  but  more  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Why,  Jesus  him- 
self said  a  very  remarkable  thing  about  the  Holy  Spirit 
when  he  was  just  taking  leave  of  the  disciples.  On  that 


HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES    MEN    HOLY.  107 

night  he  said:  "Nevertheless,  I  tell  you  the  truth." 
Now,  when  a  dignified,  self-respecting  person  conde- 
scends to  say :  "  I  am  telling  you  the  truth,"  there  must 
be  some  very  special  occasion  for  it.  He  knew  he  was 
about  to  say  something  hard  for  them  to  believe : 
"  Nevertheless,  I  tell  you  the  truth ;  it  is  expedient  for 
you  that  I  go  away ;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Com- 
forter will  not  come  to  you."  He  himself  says  you  are 
better  off  as  it  is  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  great  Coun- 
sellor and  Guide  and  Comforter,  in  his  special  mission, 
than  if  he  had  not  come,  and  Jesus  himself  were  still  on 
earth.  Think  of  that ;  cherish  the  Spirit's  mission ; 
pray,  above  all  things,  when  you  pray,  that  your  Heav- 
enly Father  will  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  you,  that  you 
may  be  strengthened.  I  say  again,  we  think  too  little 
about  that  great  idea  and  element  of  the  gospel.  We 
go  struggling  on,  forgetting  that  mighty  reinforcement 
that  our  gracious  God  offers  us  in  our  life's  battle,  "the 
law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus."  The  next 
time  you  are  specially  tempted  cry  out  mightily  for  the 
help  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  And  when  you  are  despond- 
ent, and  fancy  you  can  never  get  to  be  what  your  soul 
longs  for,  remember  what  the  Spirit  of  God  can  make 
out  of  even  such  materials  as  your  character  and  your 
life. 

One  more  point.  The  apostle  mentions  a  new  and 
mighty  incentive  which  the  Gospel  presents,  when  he 
says,  a  little  further  on :  "  For  as  many  as  are  led  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons  of  God."  My 
friends,  there  are  four  ways  in  which  it  is  conceivable 
that  a  man  should  serve  God.  One  of  them  is  practi- 


108  HOW   THE   GOSPEL   MAKES   MEN   HOLY. 

cally  impossible,  that  you  should  serve  God  with  fear 
and  trembling  as  a  subject  serves  a  tyrant.  There  are 
people  who'look  upon  God  in  the  light  of  a  despot ;  but 
they  cannot  really  serve  him  thus.  Again,  are  we  to 
serve  God  as  a  poor,  cowering  slave  serves  a  hard  mas- 
ter, from  fear  of  punishment?  Nay,  no  man  would 
truly  serve  God,  simply  from  fear  that  God  would  pun- 
ish him  if  he  did  not.  The  third  way  a  man  may  con- 
ceivably serve  God  is  in  the  hope  that  he  will  reward 
him.  But  nobody  would  ever  truly  serve  God,  if  it 
were  simply  and  alone  from  a  desire  of  reward,  not  even 
from  a  desire  to  reach  the  blessed  heaven.  The  other 
way  to  serve  God,  of  which  the  apostle  speaks,  is  to 
serve  him  out  of  filial  love ;  to  serve  him,  not  as  the 
subject  serves  a  tyrant,  not  as  the  servant  his  master, 
not  as  a  hireling  for  pay,  but  to  serve  him  as  a  loving 
son  serves  a  kind  father,  out  of  filial  love.  That  is  the 
great  idea  which  Christianity  brought  into  the  world 
on  this  subject.  That  is  the  new  motive  which  Jesus 
Christ  brings  to  bear  on  the  souls  of  men,  to  try  to  do 
right  out  of  filial  love  to  their  Father.  And  so  Paul 
proceeds  to  speak  of  the  "  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we 
cry,  Abba,  Father." 

The  apostle's  heart  is  very  tender  here.  He  has  been 
depicting  those  terrible  struggles  which  he  himself  had 
had  in  other  days  with  his  own  sinful  propensities ;  his 
heart  is  now  very  tender,  and  so  he  falls  back  upon  his 
mother  tongue.  He  is  writing  in  Greek ;  but  he  uses 
the  Aramaic  word,  Abba.  If  you  were  talking  French 
or  German,  and  were  beginning  to  speak  of  things  that 
very  much  touched  your  heart ;  if  you  began,  for  in- 


HOW    THE   GOSPEL    MAKES   MEN    HOLY.  109 

stance,  to  speak  of  your  dead  mother,  whose  very  name 
makes  you  quiver,  you  would  not  then  speak  in  French 
or  German;  you  would  not  say  mother  in  French  or 
German ;  you  would  use  the  word  you  used  when  a 
child.  So  the  apostle  here  uses  the  Aramaic  language 
he  had  spoken  in  childhood :  "  the  Spirit  of  adoption, 
whereby  we  cry,  Abba."  This  is  what  he  used  to  say 
when  he  was  a  boy,  and  he  translates  it  afterwards, — 
"  Abba,  Father." 

I  met  a  young  man  not  long  ago,  a  friend  of  mine, 
who  told  me  his  father  had  recently  died,  and  a  little  after 
.his  wife's  father.  My  young  friend  was  talking  about 
it  until  he  could  not  talk.  He  broke  down  with  emotion 
as  he  told  me  how  lonely  he  felt  now  that  both  were 
gone  and  he  had  no  one  to  lean  on,  no  one  to  look  up  to. 
Even  some  old  men,  when  they  get  into  trouble,  think 
about  the  father  they  used  to  go  to,  and  say,  "  I  wish  I 
could  ask  him  what  he  thinks  about  the  matter."  The 
Scriptures  take  hold  of  that  thought  and  tell  us  we  are 
not  to  look  to  God  simply  as  a  master  who  will  punish, 
not  merely  as  one  who  will  reward,  but  to  look  to  God 
as  our  Father,  Father,  Father  in  heaven. 

So,  then,  if  a  man  looks  to  the  law  to  make  him  holy, 
the  highest  result  will  be  a  cry  of  anguish,  "  Wretched 
man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me?  "  But  turning  to 
the  gospel,  he  sees  hope  of  being  delivered  and  becoming 
holy,  and  may  say,  "  I  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord." 


VIII. 

INTENSE  CONCERN  FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF 
I  OTHERS. 

For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my 
brethren. — Romans  ix  :  3. 

THIS  is  known  to  students  of  the  Scriptures  as  one  of 
the  passages  which  are  commonly  accounted  difficult, 
— one  of  the  hard  places.  A  preacher  would  not  be  likely 
to  take  such  a  passage  as  his  text,  unless  he  supposed  it 
possible  to  present  a  simple  and  natural  explanation  of 
it,  and  to  draw  from  it  as  thus  explained  some  useful, 
practical  lessons.  Before  I  try  to  do  this,  it  may  be 
allowable  to  offer  two  or  three  hints  as  to  the  course  we 
ought  to  pursue  in  studying  the  difficult  passages  of 
Scripture, — hints  that  would,  indeed,  apply  to  all  our 
Scriptural  studies. 

My  first  hint  would  be  this  :  Be  willing  to  let  the 
Scripture  mean  what  it  wants  to  mean.  You  may  say, 
"  that,  of  course,"  but  it  is  very  far  from  being  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  Be  willing  to  let  the  Scripture  mean 
what  it  wants  to  mean.  We  come  to  it  knowing  before- 
hand what  things  we  like  and  what  things  we  dislike, 
and  if  we  find  in  the  passage  something  not  in  accord- 
ance with  the  ideas  we  have  been  reared  in,  or  that  now 
have  possession  of  our  minds,  we  say,  "  Well,  of  course 
it  can't  mean  that,"  and  then  we  begin  to  search  for 
110 


JONCERN   FOR  THE   SALVATION   OF   OTHERS.     Ill 

some  other  meaning.  The  plainer  the  passage,  the  harder 
to  find  anything  else  than  what  is  plainly  meant,  and  so 
we  go  off  and  say,  "  What  a  difficult  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture !"  Has  not  that  often  happened  to  you  ?  It  has 
happened  to  me.  I  have  waked  up  to  find,  after  long 
years  of  study,  that  something  I  always  thought  was  a 
very  hard  passage  was  plain  enough,  only  I  had  never 
been  willing  to  allow  it  to  mean  what  it  wished  to 
mean. 

My  second  hint  would  be  :  Take  good  account  of  the 
connection.  We  are  peculiarly  prone  to  neglect  the 
connection  in  dealing  with  Scripture,  because  we  have 
the  Bible  printed — most  unfortunately,  I  think — in  little 
scraps  of  broken  sentences,  set  before  us  as  if  they  were 
separate  paragraphs — which  is  not  done  in  any  other  book 
in  the  world — and  broken  up  also  in  larger  portions  which 
are  called  chapters,  where  the  connection  is  often  com- 
pletely severed,  and  yet  we  cannot  help  imagining  there 
must  be  a  new  subject  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  chapter. 
Moreover,  we  are  accustomed  to  hear  short  passages 
taken  as  texts,  and  too  often  interpreted  without  regard 
to  the  connection.  The  connection  is  sometimes  the  en- 
tire book.  I  doubt  if  there  is  one  sentence  in  the  epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  and  there  are  very  few  in  the  epistle  to 
the  Romans,  which  can  be  really  understood  without  tak- 
ing account  of  the  whole  epistle.  But  often  the  connec- 
tion is  only  some  sentences  before  and  after.  Now,  if  you 
consider  the  connection,  it  is  wonderful  how  it  will  help 
you  to  understand  a  difficult  passage.  You  go  above  the 
difficult  place;  you  launch  on  the  stream  above,  and 
come  floating  down,  and  your  boat  is  borne  over  the 


112    CONCERN   FOR   THE  SALVATION   OF   OTHERS. 

rocks.  If  you  cannot  determine  the  precise  meaning  of 
the  words,  you  will  see  what  is  the  general  thought  of 
the  passage  as  a  whole,  and  that  is  the  main  consid- 
eration. 

The  last  hint  I  shall  mention  is,  that  we  must  take 
good  account  of  the  state  of  the  writer's  mind,  when  he 
says  these  things.  What  is  he  thinking  about  ?  What 
is  he  aiming  at  ?  How  is  he  feeling,  when  he  uses  this 
language  ?  I  am  sure,  if  any  of  you  have  tried  it,  you 
will  find  that  the  more  care  you  exercise,  when  reading 
the  Scriptures,  in  trying  to  enter  into  sympathy  with  the 
thought  and  feeling  of  the  sacred  writer,  the  better  you 
will  be  prepared  to  see  what  he  really  means. 

Now,  all  these  hints  I  have  ventured  to  offer  are  of 
importance  to  us  in  studying  the  text :  "  I  could  wish 
that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren." 
Observe  he  does  not  say  "  I  wish."  Not  he.  He  could 
not  say  that.  But  he  almost  says  it.  The  original 
could  not  be  better  translated  in  any  other  words  than 
those  used  in  our  version.  The  apostle  seems  to  be  like 
one  who  is  on  the  point  of  saying  something  wrong.  He 
rushes,  as  it  were,  towards  the  brink  of  saying  that  he 
wishes  to  be  accursed  for  his  brethren,  only  he  does  not 
say  it — stopping  on  the  brink  because  it  would  be 
wrong,  because  his  devout  heart  would  shrink  back  from 
the  idea  of  being  accursed  from  Christ,  even  for  his 
brethren.  Now,  why  does  the  inspired  apostle  use  this 
strange  language  ?  Why  does  Paul  almost  say  a  terri- 
ble thing,  so  terrible  that  many  people,  as  they  come  upon 
it,  and  begin  to  inquire  into  the  meaning,  all  out  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  passion  of  the  writer,  imagine  that  they 


CONCERN  FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF  OTHERS.  113 

must  explain  it  away — that  it  must  be  impossible  for 
him  to  approach  even  to  the  brink  of  saying  what  would 
be  so  dreadful. 

The  epistle  to  the  Romans  is  taken  up  in  its  doctrinal 
portion  with  the  great  thought  of  justification  by  faith  : 
that  men  are  justified  simply  by  believing  in  Jesus.  The 
apostle  discusses  that  in  the  first  five  chapters.  We  had 
a  text  from  that  portion  some  Sundays  ago.  Then,  in 
the  next  three  chapters  he  discusses  the  bearing  of 
this  justification  by  faith  upon  the  matter  of  sanctifica- 
tion,  showing  how  it  works  in  helping  us  to  be  good. 
We  had  a  text  from  that  portion  not  long  ago.  In 
three  more  chapters  he  now  discusses  the  bearing  of  jus- 
tification by  faith  upon  the  privileges  of  the  Jews.  The 
Jews  considered  themselves  far  superior,  in  point  of  re- 
ligion, to  any  nation  in  the  world,  and  they  would  begin 
to  see  at  once  that  if  the  apostle's  doctrine  be  true,  and  a 
man  is  accepted  through  simple  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
then  a  Gentile  might  exercise  that  as  well  as  a  Jew,  and 
so  a  Gentile  would  be  as  good  as  a  Jew.  We  cannot 
imagine  how  they  would  shrink  back  from  any  doctrine 
with  such  a  conclusion,  that  a  Gentile  is  as  good  as  a 
Jew.  We  do  not  know  of  any  national  or  race  preju- 
dices in  our  time  that  are  so  strong  as  the  prejudices 
then  existing  between  Jew  and  Gentile.  They  would 
especially  dislike  such  teaching  from  Paul  the  apostle. 
They  would  say  he  is  a  renegade  himself  to  the  religion 
of  his  fathers.  He  is  a  traitor  to  his  people.  They 
were  indignant  at  the  idea  of  his  saying  that  a  Gentile 
could  be  saved  as  well  as  a  Jew.  When  Paul  said,  the 
following  spring,  in  his  address  at  Jerusalem,  that  Jesus 


114    CONCERN   FOR  THE  SALVATION   OF  OTHERS. 

had  told  him  to  go  to  the  Gentiles,  they  broke  out  in 
rage,  and  he  had  to  be  saved  by  the  Roman  garrison. 
The  apostle  knew  how  intensely  they  would  dislike  this 
idea,  and  so  he  wanted  to  assure  them  in  entering  upon 
this  topic — the  bearing  of  justification  by  faith  upon  the 
privileges  of  the  Jews — he  wanted  to  assure  them  that 
he  loved  his  own  people,  and  although  he  is  bound  to 
acknowledge, -as  he  is  going  to  acknowledge,  that  the 
great  mass  of  his  people  are  rejecting  the  Messiah,  while 
Gentiles  all  around  are  believing  unto  salvation,  yet  he 
acknowledges  this  with  inexpressible  pain  and  grief. 
That  is  the  way  he  feels.  That  is  what  he  wants  to  im- 
press upon  them.  He  sees  what  is  coming  for  his 
nation.  This  epistle  was  written  twelve  years  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  only  eight  years  before 
the  war  that  led  to  that  destruction.  The  apostle  saw 
that  soon  their  hot  fanaticism  would  break  out  in  des- 
perate rebellion  against  the  Roman  authority,  and  sooner 
or  later  they  must  be  crushed  out  and  ground  to  atoms. 
Here  was  a  man  who  saw  that  his  own  nation,  his  own 
race,  bound  to  him  not  merely  by  nationality  in  the  or- 
dinary sense,  but  by  ties  of  blood  through  long  and  pure 
descent,  was  going  to  ruin.  His  race  alone  of  all  the  great 
races  of  the  earth  can  trace  their  history  back  to  a  his- 
toric ancestor  ;  for  all  the  other  peoples  find  their  ances- 
try lost  in  darkness,  but  the  Jews  could  go  back  in  his- 
tory to  their  common  father.  His  race  had  great  and 
glorious  deeds  connected  with  its  history  in  the  past,  and 
had  yet  more  glorious  promises  for  the  future  in  connection 
with  the  Messiah.  And  this  man,  who  loved  his  people, 
who  loved  them  so  intensely  that  when  the  Lord  ap- 


CONCERN   FOR   THE  SALVATION  OF  OTHERS.    115 

peared  to  him  in  a  vision,  and  said,  "  Go  preach  to  the 
heathen,"  he  remonstrated  and  did  not  want  to  obey, 
and  had  to  be  driven  by  persecution,  clearly  sees  that 
the  Jewish  nation  is  about  to  perish.  Not  only  does  he 
see  that  national  destruction  awaits  them,  but  he  sees 
that  the  great  mass  of  them  are  slighting  their  own 
Messiah,  now  that  he  is  come,  are  rejecting  the  salvation 
that  is  in  him  alone,  and  plunging  madly  into  the  dark- 
ness of  eternity.  He  feels  all  that.  And  listen  how  he 
speaks,  in  introducing  this  subject,  "  I  say  the  truth  in 
Christ — I  lie  not."  A  man  of  self-respect  never  conde- 
scends to  assure  people  that  he  is  telling  the  truth  and 
not  lying,  unless  there  is  some  extraordinary  reason  for 
it.  "  I  say  the  truth  in  Christ — I  lie  not,  my  conscience 
also  bearing  me  witness  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  I  have 
great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow  in  my  heart.  For 
I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for 
my  brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh ;  who 
are  Israelites ;  to  whom  pertaineth  the  adoption,  and  the 
glory,  and  the  covenants,  and  the  giving  of  the  law,  and 
the  service  of  God,  and  the  promises;  whose  are  the 
fathers,  and  of  whom  as  concerning  the  flesh  the  Messiah 
came,  who  is  over  all,  God  blessed  forever."  You  see 
that  ordinary  language  does  not  suffice  to  express  his 
emotion.  In  his  swelling  passion  of  soul  he  rushes  to 
the  very  brink  of  saying  what  would  be  wrong  to  say, 
and  shrinks  back  from  saying  it.  That  seems  to  me  to 
be  the  plain  meaning  of  the  passage,  and  all  that  is 
necessary  to  understand  it  is  sympathy  with  the  sacred 
writer's  state  of  mind. 

Now,  as  thus  explained,  the  passage  tis  rich  in  instruc- 


116     CONCERN    FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF   OTHERS. 

tion.  I  shall  only  gather  out  three  or  four  of  its  lessons, 
all  of  which  connect  themselves  with  one  thought :  in- 
tense concern  for  the  salvation  of  others. 

1.  And  first.     Concern  for  the  salvation  of  others  is 
naturally  enhanced  by  patriotism.     If  a  man  feels  at  all 
as  a  Christian  ought  to  feel  in  the  way  of  desire  for  the 
salvation  of  all  his  fellow-men,  through  common  human 
sympathies  and  common  wants  and  destinies,  then  he 
will  naturally  feel  more  of  such  concern  for  those  who 
are  allied  to  him  by  ties  of  nationality ;  dear  to  him 
through  feelings  of  patriotism — his  own  people.     And 
all  the  more  if  they  are  also  dear  to  him  by  ties  of  per- 
sonal affection — if  they  live  in  his  own  locality,  if  they 
share  all  his  peculiar  interest*,  his  difficulties,  his  joys. 
Still  more  if  they  are  his  friends,  and  most  of  all  if  they 
are  his  kindred.     All  the  reasons  we  have  for  desiring 
the  salvation  of  mankind  at  large  exist  in  such  cases, 
and  then  all  these  additional  reasons  enhance  the  con- 
cern we  naturally  feel  for  their  salvation.     My  friends, 
not  only  Paul  felt  thus,  but  he  who  stood  on  Olivet  and 
looked  out  on  the  splendid  capital  of  his  country,  which 
he  knew  was  doomed  to  destruction,  shall  we  not  sup- 
pose that  he  felt  some  peculiar  interest  in  his  own  people? 
Why  not? 

2.  Again.     Concern  for  the  salvation  of  others  is  not 
prevented  by  a  belief  in  what  we  call  the  doctrines  of 
grace ;  is  not  prevented  by  believing  in  divine  sover- 
eignty, and  predestination  and  election.      Many  persons 
intensely  dislike  the  ideas  which  are  expressed  by  these 
phrases.     Many  persons  shrink  away  from  ever  accept- 
ing them,  because  those  ideas  are  in  their  minds  asso- 


CONCERN    FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF   OTHERS.     117 

elated  with  the  notion  of  stolid  indifference.  They  say 
if  predestination  be  true,  then  it  follows  that  a  man 
cannot  do  anything  for  his  own  salvation ;  that  if  he  is 
to  be  saved  he  will  be  saved,  and  he  has  nothing  to  do 
with  it,  and  need  not  care,  nor  need  any  one  else  care. 
Now,  this  does  not  at  all  follow,  and  I  will  prove  that  it 
does  not  follow,  by  the  fact  that  Paul  himself,  the  great 
oracle  of  this  doctrine  in  the  Scripture,  has  uttered  these 
words  of  burning  passionate  concern  for  the  salvation  of 
others,  so  close  by  the  passages  in  which  he  has  taught 
the  doctrines  in  question.  Look  back  from  the  text, 
run  back  a  few  sentences  and  you  will  find  the  very  pas- 
sage upon  which  many  stumble  :  "  Moreover,  whom  he 
did  predestinate" — there  are  people  who  shudder  at  the 
very  words — "  them  he  also  called,  and  whom  he  called, 
them  he  also  justified ;  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he 
also  glorified."  Just  a  little  while  after  he  uttered  those 
words  from  which  men  want  to  infer  that  the  man  who 
believes  it  need  not  feel  concerned  for  his  salvation  or 
the  salvation  of  others,  just  a  little  after,  came  the  pas- 
sionate words  of  the  text.  Nor  is  that  all,  for  you  will 
find  just  following  the  text,  where  he  speaks  of  Esau 
and  Jacob,  that  God  made  a  difference  between  them 
before  they  were  born,  and  where  he  says  of  Pharaoh 
that  God  raised  him  up  that  he  might  show  his  power  in 
him,  and  that  God's  name  might  be  declared  through- 
out all  the  earth.  "  Therefore  he  hath  mercy  on  whom 
he  will,  and  whom  he  will  he  hardeneth."  Some  good 
people  fairly  shiver  at  the  inference,  which  seems  to 
them  to  be  inevitable  from  such  language  as  that. 
But  I  say  the  inference  must  be  wrong,  for  the  in- 

WOFFORD  COLLEGE  LIBRAE 


118    CONCERN    FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF   OTHERS. 

spired  man  who  uttered  this  language,  only  a  few 
moments  before  had  uttered  these  words  of  the  text. 
And  whenever  you  find  your  heart  or  the  heart  of  your 
friend  inclined  to  shrink  away  from  these  great  teachings 
of  divine  Scripture  concerning  sovereignty  and  predes- 
tination, then  I  pray  you  make  no  argument  about  it, 
but  turn  to  this  language  of  concern  for  the  salvation  of 
others,  so  intensely  passionate  that  men  wonder  and 
think  surely  it  cannot  mean  what  it  says.  The  trouble 
is  in  this  and  many  cases  that  we  draw  unwarranted  in- 
ferences from  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  and  then  cast 
all  the  odium  of  those  inferences  upon  the  truths  from 
which  we  draw  them.  Now,  I  say  that  whatever  be 
true,  for  or  against  the  apostle's  doctrines  of  predestina- 
tion and  divine  sovereignty  in  salvation,  it  is  not  true  that 
they  will  make  a  man  careless  as  to  his  own  salvation  or 
that  of  others ;  seeing  that  they  had  no  such  eifect  on  Paul 
himself,  but  right  in  between  these  two  great  passages 
come  the  wonderful  words  of  the  text. 

3.  The  third  lesson  is,  that  concern  for  the  salvation 
of  others  will  sometimes  rise  to  intense  passion.  The 
Apostle  Paul  is  not  always  saying,  "  Woe  is  me  if  I 
preach  not  the  gospel."  He  said  that  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances. Nor  does  he  anywhere  else  use  such  an 
expression  as  this  of  the  text.  So,  as  I  said,  concern 
for  the  salvation  of  others  will  sometimes  rise  to  intense 
passion. 

And  more  generally,  let  us  say,  piety  has  elements  of 
passionate  feeling.  I  suppose  that  piety  is  threefold  : 
there  is  thought,  and  feeling,  and  action.  Different  per- 
sons are  inclined  to  prefer  one  or  the  other  of  these  three, 


CONCERN  FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF  OTHERS.  119 

according  to  their  own  natural  constitution,  their  educa- 
tion, prejudices,  etc. ;  but  all  three  are  necessary  to  a 
symmetrical  Christian  character  and  Christian  life. 
Some  persons  will  say,  if  you  talk  with  them,  "O,  I 
do  love  Christian  thought — I  love  to  hear  a  preacher 
who  presents  to  me  inspiring  thoughts,  especially  if  there 
is  some  new  thought."  And  then  some  of  them  are 
carried  away  with  the  idea  that  they  want  modern 
thought,  as  they  call  it,  instead  of  Scripture.  But  mean- 
time it  is  true  that  we  also  need  feeling.  A  man  who 
finds  himself  inclined  to  prefer  what  he  calls  thought  in 
connection  with  Christianity,  and  to  neglect  Christian 
feeling  and  Christian  action,  ought  to  see  to  it  lest  his 
character  be  deformed  because  wanting  in  essential  ele- 
ments, and  ought  to  cultivate  in  himself  a  regard  for 
feeling  and  for  action.  Many  cultivated  people  in  our 
time,  as  they  look  with  ill-concealed  disgust  upon  the 
poor  negroes,  with  their  wild  passionate  way  of  express- 
ing religious  feeling,  had  better  see  to  it  lest  they  them- 
selves be  ruinously  lacking  in  the  element  which  appears 
in  the  blacks  to  be  too  exclusive.  Then  there  are  those 
who  care  nothing  about  anything  but  feeling.  They 
say,  "  I  love  to  hear  a  man  that  makes  me  feel."  *  Their 
danger  is  that  they  will  not  know  what  they  are  feeling 
about,  because  it  is  not  Scripture  truths  that  make  them 
feel,  and  such  feeling  will  not  lead  to  pious  action. 
Emotion  in  religion  is  proper  and  necessary,  and  I  do 
not  condemn  those  who  value  it  highly  ;  but  such  persons 
must  see  to  it  that  they  have  truth,  which  is  the  circu- 
lating life-blood  of  piety,  and  that  their  feelings  shall 
lead  to  corresponding  earnest  and  intense  activity  ;  for 


CONCERN    FOR  THE  SALVATION   OF  OTHERS. 

emotion  about  religion,  as  in  anything  else,  if  it  does  not 
express  itself  in  activity,  will  not  only  be  worthless,  but 
will  injure  the  character.  Others  there  are  who  talk  of 
nothing  but  action,  work,  work.  Now,  work  is  a  noble 
word,  but  the  danger  of  these  persons  is,  that  they  will 
forget  to  love  Christian  truth  and  to  cultivate  Christian 
feeling. 

The  same  thing  is  true  as  to  bodies  of  men.  You  can 
easily  think  of  a  great  religious  denomination  in  our 
country,  who  care  mainly  for  thought,  instruction,  knowl- 
edge. A  noble  idea  it  is,  but  possibly  their  danger  may 
be  that  they  will  underrate  Christian  feeling.  You  can 
very  easily  think  of  another  powerful  and  useful  denom- 
ination of  Christians  whose  great  idea  is  feeling.  Every- 
thing is  made  to  contribute  to  working  up  emotion,  and 
their  danger  is  that  they  will  neglect  the  importance  of 
holding  truth,  even  if  they  do  not  neglect  the  importance 
of  activity. 

The  same  thing  is  also  true  about  certain  periods  of 
Christian  history.  You  can  find  periods  when  all  the 
Christian  world  seemed  devoted  to  the  idea  of  doctrine, 
when  men  disputed  through  a  lifetime  about  the  doc- 
trines of  Christianity,  when  all  the  great  divisions  of  the 
time  centred  themselves  upon  the  difference  between 
two  words  of  Scripture.  You  can  find  other  periods 
where  Christianity  seemed  to  run  altogether  into  mys- 
tical feeling ;  when  good  people  gave  themselves  up  to 
solitary  lives,  or  retired  to  the  privacy  of  their  homes, 
and  thought  that  all  that  could  be  done  was  to  try  to 
cultivate  Christian  sentiment  in  private.  And  ours  is 
an  age  which  runs  towards  activity.  The  Christian  idea 


CONCERN    FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF   OTHERS.     121 

now  is  work.  I  thank  God  that  we  live  in  such  an  age. 
It  is  good  to  live  in  a  time  when  the  idea  is  to  work.  It 
is  a  noble  privilege  to  live  in  such  a  period.  But  our 
danger  is  that  we  shall  not  care  for  Christian  truth,  and 
that  in  our  fancied  superiority  to  all  mere  emotion 'we 
shall  shrink  away  from  those  great  sentiments,  that  pas- 
sionate Christian  feeling,  which  alone  will  stir  us  up  to 
intense,  loving  and  persevering  Christian  activity. 

4.  One  more  lesson.  Concern  for  the  salvation  of 
others,  such  as  Paul  here  expresses,  must  have  had  some 
good  ground  in  the  nature  of  things.  Ah !  my  friends, 
you  cannot  tell  me  that  the  man  who  wrote  those  words 
thought  that  everybody  was  going  to  be  saved  at  last. 
If  he  did  not  believe  in  divine  mercy  and  divine  love ; 
if  he  did  not  believe  in  the  salvation  that  is  in  Jesus 
Christ — in  the  glory  and  the  power  of  his  grace,  and  his 
everlasting  intercession — then  who  ever  did?  He  did 
believe  in  these.  And  yet  do  you  think  a  man  could 
have  felt  that  passionate  distress  to  which  he  here  gives 
such  strong  utterance,  if  he  had  thought,  as  so  many 
well-meaning  people  think  now-a-days,  that  God  is  so 
good  and  merciful,  that  somehow  or  other,  may  be  not  at 
first  when  they  die,  but  sometime  or  other,  it  will  be  well 
with  everybody  at  last  ?  Paul  did  not  think  so.  He 
could  not  have  thought  so.  And  I  venture  to  say 
Jesus  Christ  did  not  think  so.  If  we  are  determined 
that  we  will  cling  to  certain  ideas,  because  they  suit  our 
natural  feeling,  then  I  am  persuaded  we  must  turn  our 
back  upon  the  authority  of  the  word  of  God.  There 
must  be  some  ground  for  such  concern  as  Paul  felt.  I 
shrink  from  telling  what  it  is.  I  think  of  the  awful 

)NOF>URD  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
w. __.  f^ 


122    CONCERN    FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF   OTHERS. 

terms  which  the  Scriptures  themselves  sometimes  em- 
ploy,— the  images  of  horror,  the  words  of  everlasting  fire 
— and  I  do  not  wish  here  and  now  to  speak  of  them. 
But  there  must  be  some  ground  for  this  passionate  con- 
cern for  men's  salvation  which  Paul  expresses.  And  if 
men  ought  to  feel  so,  and  if  devout  people  do  feel  so 
with  reference  to  others,  then  tell  me  how  those  others 
ought  to  feel  as  regards  themselves?  My  friends,  who 
do  not  care  anything  about  your  souls,  you  must  be  mad- 
men and  irresponsible,  or  else  you  ought  to  care. 

I  humbly  confess  to-day,  in  behalf  of  my  Christian 
hearers,  that  we  do  not  feel  on  this  subject  as  we  ought 
to  feel.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that  we  catch  glimpses 
of  the  reality.  "  Life  is  oft  so  like  a  dream,  we  know 
not  where  we  are,"  and  we  do  not  realize  things,  and  so 
we  do  not  feel  the  concern  we  ought  to  feel.  We  are 
wanting  in  our  duty  to  you  in  this  respect.  And  yet 
you  do  not  know  how  much  concern  we  do  feel.  Many 
and  many  a  time  have  persons  who  are  here  to-day, 
when  they  found  themselves  in  the  presence  of  those  they 
loved,  wanted  to  say  something,  their  very  life  has 
trembled  with  the  desire  to  say  something,  and  they 
have  shrunk  back.  May  be  they  were  afraid  they 
would  meet  no  sympathy.  This  may  have  been  true 
in  some  cases.  And  yet,  my  brethren,  I  suspect  it  has 
sometimes  happened  that  you  shrank  from  speaking 
when  that  very  one  you  loved  was  secretly  wishing  that 
you  would  speak,  but  from  a  like  shrinking  to  yours,  per- 
haps from  a  fear  that  you  would  suppose  he  cared 
more  than  he  did,  or  from  a  strange  sensitiveness  with 
regard  to  the  feelings  that  lie  deepest  in  our  hearts, 


CONCERN   FOR   THE  SALVATION   OF   OTHERS.     123 

would  offer  you  no  encouragement.  But  I  venture  to 
say  to  such  as  are  not  Christians,  there  are  those  that 
do  feel  a  deep  yearning,  an  unutterable  concern  some- 
times for  your  salvation,  and  O,  my  friends,  you  ought 
to  feel  concern  for  yourselves. 


IX. 

THE  MOTHER  OF  JESUS. 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus. — Acts  i  :  14. 

rPHERE  is  a  well-known  tendency  of  human  thought 
-*-  to  oscillate  from  one  extreme  to  another.  I  think 
this  tendency  was  exhibited  in  several  points  of  what  we 
call  the  Protestant  Reformation.  In  certain  important 
respects,  we  are  all  agreed  that  there  was  a  real  and 
thorough  reformation.  In  certain  other  respects  most  of 
us  think  it  was  a  very  partial  reformation.  And  there 
are  yet  several  other  respects  in  which  it  was  a  violent 
reaction  from  one  extreme  to  the  opposite  extreme.  It 
appears  to  me  that  this  has  been  the  case  as  regards  the 
position  of  Protestants  toward  the  mother  of  Jesus. 
The  Romanists,  we  may  say  without  uncharitableness, 
have  come  very  near  making  her  an  object  of  worship. 
Their  theologians  make  nice  distinctions  on  the  subject, 
but  practically,  for  the  ignorant  mass,  she  is  really  an 
object  of  worship,  a  sort  of  goddess.  The  Protestant 
mind,  starting  back  in  horror  from  that  terrible  idolatry, 
has  seemed  to  shrink  sensitively  away  from  ever  saying 
a  word  or  ever  thinking  for  a  moment  about  the  mother 
of  Jesus. 

It  is  all  natural  enough,  the  growth  of  what  we  con- 
sider to  be  the  grave  Romanist  error  about  Mary.     The 
association?  connected  with  all  those  who  followed  Jesus 
124 


THE   MOTHER  OF   JESUS.  125 

would  naturally  have  caused  the  early  Christians  to  feel 
a  peculiar  interest  in  her,  as  they  ought  to  have  done. 
And  then  the  feeling  which  rapidly  grew  up,  of  a  de- 
sire for  human  mediation  between  us  and  God — between 
us*,  and  the  Saviour  himself — and  which  led,  in  the 
course  of  the  centuries,  to  praying  to  the  saints  for  their 
mediation,  would  naturally  cause  the  mother  of  Jesus  to 
be  regarded  as  the  most  influential  of  all  these  interced- 
ing saints.  Moreover,  the  Roman  Church,  with  that 
talent  for  governing  which  has  characterized  the  Roman 
people  through  all  their  history,  readily  adapted  itself  to 
the  tastes  of  mankind,  to  the  tendencies  of  human  nature 
in  general,  and  to  the  special  usages  of  the  old  Pagan 
Romans,  introducing,  for  example,  a  number  of  festivals, 
so  that  there  would  be  something  corresponding  to  the 
ancient  festivals  to  please  the  people.  And  as  all  Pagan 
nations  had  their  female  deities,  there  naturally  arose  a 
feeling  which  made  the  mother  of  Jesus  a  sort  of  female 
divinity.  Then,  when  art  came  into  use  in  the  churches, 
when  they  introduced  image  worship,  there  was  nothing 
more  natural  than  that  the  mother  and  the  babe  in  her 
arms  should  be  the  chosen  subject  of  artistic  representa- 
tion in  places  of  worship ;  that  the  great  artists  of  Italy 
should  not  only  find  this  most  popular  and  remunerative 
for  their  pencil,  but  most  pleasing  for  themselves.  So 
galleries  were  filled  with  many  charming  delineations  of 
the  Virgin  and  child.  I  suppose,  also,  that  the  spirit  of 
chivalry  in  the  Middle  Ages  may  have  had  something  to 
do  with  this.  There  was  then  a  high,  romantic  senti- 
ment towards  woman  as  such,  and  this  may  have  caused 
Mary  to  be  regarded  as  the  representative  woman,  so 


126  THE   MOTHER   OF   JESUS. 

that  romance  added  itself  to  devotion.  For  these  and 
other  causes  it  has  come  to  pass  that  not  only  in  the 
Roman  Church,  but  in  the  Greek  and  Armenian  and 
Coptic  Churches,  and  all  through  the  East,  they  talk  a 
great  deal  more  about  Mary  than  about  her  son.  I  have 
at  home  a  great  collection  of  Latin  hymns  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  made  by  a  German  scholar,  in  which  there  are 
three  times  as  many  about  Mary  as  about  Jesus  and  the 
apostles  all  put  together. 

Now,  I  say  the  Protestant  mind  has  violently  reacted 
from  all  this,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  we  should  shrink 
shuddering  from  what  is  practical  idolatry,  no  matter 
how  skillfully  explained  away.  But  isn't  it  a  pity  that 
we  should  go  to  the  opposite  extreme  as  regards  the 
mother  of  our  Lord?  Let  us  look,  then,  at  what  the 
Scriptures  teach.  It  was  said  to  her  by  the  angel, 
"Blessed  art  thou  among  women,"  and  she  said, 
"Henceforth  all  generations  shall  call  me  blessed." 
There  is  no  ground  there  for  worship.  "  Blessed  among 
women,"  Elizabeth  was  called,  and  Jael,  who  killed 
Sisera.  The  meaning  of  Mary's  own  saying  is,  all  gen- 
erations shall  call  me  happy,  shall  felicitate  me,  shall 
recognize  that  my  position  is  a  happy  one.  There  is  no 
foundation  for  calling  her  "  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary," 
as  an  act  of  worship,  but  there  is  a  foundation  for  tak- 
ing peculiar  interest  in  what  the  Scriptures  teach  con- 
cerning her.  It  is  not  much  that  they  do  teach,  and 
doubtless  that  is  well,  for  otherwise  it  would  have  been 
perverted  in  the  interest  of  that  semi-idolatry  we  have 
been  speaking  about ;  but  from  what  they  do  teach  we 
may  draw  some  useful  lessons,  and  may,  at  the  same 


THE    MOTHER   OF   JESUS.  127 

time,  get  some  interesting  views  of  her  son,  who  is,  O 
wonder  of  wonders !  our  Divine  Redeemer. 

1.  First  recall  Mary's  early  life.  Now,  I  could  bring 
you  some  so-called  manuals  about  the  Blessed  Virgin 
Mary,  which  would  give  you  a  great  mass  of  detail 
about  her  early  life,  but  unfortunately  they  are  all  late 
tradition ;  in  fact,  they  are  all  pure  fiction,  and  without 
the  advantage  of  being  well  invented.  They  are  com- 
monly dull  and  stupid.  But  when  we  look  to  the  Scrip- 
tures themselves,  some  things  we  do  know  about  her 
early  life.  We  know  that  instead  of  being  at  a  convent 
at  Jerusalem,  as  the  silly  traditions  say,  she  lived  at  the 
little  town  of  Nazareth. 

This  village,  nestling  down  in  its  deep  and  retired 
valley,  is  never  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
even  Josephus,  who  writes  about  a  dozen  places  within  a 
few  miles  of  it,  never  speaks  of  Nazareth.  It  was  an 
insignificant  and  quite  out  of  the  way  place,  far  from 
the  bustling,  noisy  world.  Yet  here  Mary  was  to  rear 
the  appointed  Saviour  of  men.  Out  of  silence  and  ob- 
scurity was  to  come  in  the  appointed  time  the  Sav- 
iour of  mankind. 

Nor  must  you  suppose  it  was  a  desirable  community 
to  live  in.     Those  who  wrestle  with  the  giant  vices  that 
gather  in  great  cities  often  dream  that  in  a  quiet  little 
retired  village  it  would  be  easy  to  do  right^but  Arcadian  ] 
simplicity  and  purity  is  seldom  anything  more  than  a  ? 
dream.)    Those  people  of  Nazareth  were  singularly  bad.  ' 

They  showed  towards  Jesus  himself  a  rudeness  and 
ferocity  to  which  we  know  of  no  parallel  in  his  minis- 
try. They  rejected  him  rudely.  They  tried  to  take  his 


128  THE   MOTHER  OF   JESUS. 

life.  And  one  of  whom  Jesus  said  that  he  was  an 
Israelite  in  whom  there  was  no  guile,  and  who  lived  in 
a  neighboring  village,  asked  in  astonishment,  "  Can 
anything  good  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?  "  It  was  a  bad 
place.  And  Mary  lived  among  those  rude  people  of 
Nazareth. 

Besides  knowing  the  place  of  her  abode,  we  know  of 
Mary  that  she  was  familiar  with  Scripture.  For  when 
the  great  time  in  her  life  came,  and,  inspired,  she  burst 
out  into  praise,  almost  every  expression  she  uses  is  from 
the  Old  Testament.  Her  whole  mind  and  heart  were 
full  of  the  sacred  writings,  so  that  their  language  came 
spontaneously  to  her  lips.  That  is  an  important  point; 
she  was  familiar  with  the  Scriptures. 

2.  In  the  next  place,  think  of  Mary's  belief  and  re- 
joicing. There  came  to  her  the  most  wonderful  promise 
that  ever  was  made  on  earth,  and  the  most  incredible. 
It  seemed  at  first  blush  to  be  impossible,  and  the  ques- 
tion she  asked  concerning  it  touched  that  very  point. 
She  said  :  "  How  can  these  things  be  ?  "  It  is  in  that 
respect  we  see  an  instructive  difference  between  Mary 
and  Zachariah.  Zachariah  said  :  "  How  shall  I  know 
this,  seeing  I  am  an  old  man  and  my  wife  is  old  ?"  He 
speaks  as  a  man  not  disposed  to  believe  and  who  insists 
upon  having  better  proof.  But  Mary  speaks  as  one 
who  is  disposed  to  believe,  and  asks  only  to  have  an 
apparent  impossibility  removed,  that  she  may  believe. 
You  see  here  two  types  of  character,  two  states  of  mind, 
such  as  often  exist  with  us  in  relation  to  the  Scriptures. 
There  are  people  that  present  their  difficulties  in  such  a 
way  as  to  show  plainly  that  they  are  like  Zachariah  ;  they 


THE    MOTHER   OF   JESUS.  129 

don't  much  want  to  believe,  and  they  insist  on  their 
difficulties  and  cherish  them,  and  are  not  anxious  you 
should  remove  them.  There  are  others  who  have  sore 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  believing,  so  that  we  owe  them 
our  tender  respect  and  sympathy,  who  are  asking  only 
that  they  may  get  rid  of  what  seems  to  them  to  stand  in 
the  way,  so  that  they  may  believe.  God  be  gracious  to 
all  such  !  God  help  them  out  of  their  trouble  !  Mary 
believed,  not  "  because  it  was  impossible,"  as  a  Latin 
Father  once  rhetorically  said;'  she  believed  notwith- 
standing it  seemed  impossible,  because  it  was  expressly 
ascribed  to  the  power  of  God.  "  The  Holy  Ghost  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall 
overshadow  thee."  And  Mary  said :  "  Behold  the 
hand-maid  of  the  Lord ;  be  it  unto  me  according  to  thy 
word."  We  do  not  want  to  believe  a  thing  that  is  impos- 
sible, but,  like  Mary,  we  have  to  believe  wrhat  includes 
many  elements  that  are  incomprehensible.  In  the  nature  of 
things  it  must  be  so.  There  was  much  that  Mary  could 
not  understand,  and  as  the  years  came  and  went  she  did 
not  understand  them  still. 

When  the  shepherds  came  after  the  babe  had  been 
actually  born,  and  reported  what  the  angels  had  said,  we 
are  told  that  Mary  "  kept  all  these  things  and  pondered 
them  in  her  heart."  She  could  not  know  the  meaning. 
When  Simeon,  in  the  Temple,  said  such  wonderful 
things  about  the  child,  we  read  that  Mary  and  Joseph 
wondered  about  all  these  things  that  were  told  concerning 
him ;  and  when  the  child  showed  such  extraordinary 
knowledge  at  twelve  years  of  age,  we  are  told  that 
Mary  and  Joseph  were  amazed.  It  was  necessary  that 
9 


130  THE   MOTHER   OF   JESUS. 

they  should  not  understand  it.  If  the  reality  as  to  what 
it  was  had  forced  itself  upon  them,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  that  they  should  have  lived  under  the  same 
roof.  So  Mrs.  Browning  makes  her  say : 

"  Bright  angels, — move  not ! — lest  ye  stir  the  cloud 

Betwixt  my  soul  and  his  futurity  I 
I  must  not  die,  with  mother's  work  to  do, 
And  could  not  live — and  see." 

In  the  very  idea  of  an  incarnation  there  are  necessa- 
rily many  things  incomprehensible.  My  friends,  if  you 
take  this  Bible,  which  comes  so  strangely  home  to  all 
our  spiritual  wants,  which,  in  all  seasons  of  conscious 
spiritual  weakness,  offers  the  very  strength  we  need, 
which  affords  us  that  help  against  sin  which  is  not  found 
anywhere  else  in  this  world — this  Bible,  which  the  more 
progress  we  make  in  trying  to  do  right,  seems  the  more 
sweetly  adapted  to  all  our  spiritual  wants — if  you  take 
this  Bible,  you  find  that  it  reveals  an  incarnation,  and 
that  this,  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  involves  many 
things  that  seem  almost  impossible.  There  must  be  ever 
so  many  allusions  to  things  in  which  we  can  make  no 
progress  at  all,  as  to  comprehending  their  nature.  We 
are  in  Mary's  position.  "We  are  Hot  expected  to  believe 
an  impossibility,  but  warranted  and  bound  to  believe  an 
assured  fact,  notwithstanding  there  be  many  things 
about  it  whose  nature  we  cannot  possibly  comprehend. 
It  seems  that  this  distinction  might  have  value  to  any 
one  troubled  about  these  problems,  and  anxious  to  re- 
ceive the  truth. 

Notice,  fnrther,  that  Mary,  in  believing,  rejoices.  She 


THE   MOTHER   OF   JESUS.  131 

said  :  "  My  soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord ;  from  hence- 
forth all  generations  shall  call  me  happy."  It  was  a 
wonderful  thing,  that  young  girl,  the  child  of  poverty, 
in  that  little  out  of  the  way  village,  daring  to  say  that 
all  coming  generations  should  know  of  her  and  call  her 
happy  ;  but  she  said  it,  because  God  had  promised.  She 
said  it  with  no  idea  of  personal  merit,  with  no  thought 
of  personal  pride,  but  because  God  had  promised.  If 
one  of  you  should  stand  here  by  my  side,  and  we  two 
should,  with  the  most  genuine  humility  in  our  power, 
say  we  think  we  are  children  of  God,  we  hope  we 
shall  be  blessed  forever  in  Heaven,  we  are  confident  we 
shall  dwell  amid  the  purity  and  glory  of  the  better 
world,  there  are  some  people  ready  enough — I  know  not 
that  there  are  such  here  present,  but  you  find  cases  of 
that  sort  everywhere — there  are  some  people  ready 
enough  to  say  :  "  You  think  a  great  deal  of  yourselves ; 
you  count  yourselves  favorites  of  heaven,"  and  all  that. 
Yet,  in  fact,  the  profession  would  be  made  not  in  self- 
complacency,  but  in  simple,  humble  reliance  on  a  divine 
promise.  And  why  should  not  a  human  heart  trust  a 
divine  promise,  as  then,  so  now  and  henceforward  and 
for  ever  more,  and  trusting  a  divine  promise,  rejoice  in  a 
divine  hope? 

3.  In  the  third  place,  think  of  Mary  training  her  child. 
We  know  something  of  the  nature  of  that  training.  We 
have  read  of  young  Timothy,  that  from  a  child  he  knew 
the  Holy  Scripture  that  his  mother  and  grandmother  had 
taught  him,  and  had  learned  to  share  the  faith  that  was 
in  them.  That  is  a  picture  we  may  transfer  to  the  hum- 
ble home  of  the  carpenter  in  Nazareth.  That  child 


132  THE   MOTHER   OF   JESUS. 

needed  to  be  trained.  Do  we  not  read  that  he  grew  in 
wisdom  and  stature  ?  If  he  increased  in  wisdom,  there 
was  need  of  education.  We  find  that  the  mother  trusted 
him  almost  without  bound.  And  we  know  that  he 
was  really  what  children  so  often  imagine  themselves  to 
be,  wiser  than  his  parents.  Yet,  he  went  down  with 
them  and  was  subject  to  them.  The  human  mind  has 
to  grow.  If  there  was  a  real  incarnation,  the  human 
mind  had  to  grow.  It  needed  to  be  developed.  There 
was  room  for  education.  There  was  demand  for  it.  Yea, 
and  he  himself,  toward  the  close  of  his  ministry,  must 
have  meant  the  same  thing  as  to  the  capacity  of  the 
human  mind  to  contain  knowledge,  when  he  said :  "  Of 
that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man,  not  even  the  angels 
in  heaven,  nor  even  the  Son,  but  the  Father  only."  The 
human  mind  cannot  know  all  things.  And  our  Lord's 
human  mind  could  not  hold  all  knowledge.  Such  is  the 
declaration  of  the  record,  that  his  mind  grew  in  wisdom 
as  his  body  grew  in  stature,  and  Mary  was  the  mother 
that  trained  him.  It  seems  idle  sometimes  for  a  poor 
toiling  mother  to  indulge  in  the  romantic  ideas  which  poets 
and  novelists  write  about  a  mother's  high  mission  ;  and 
yet  it  is  good  for  such  a  one,  amid  trial  and  sacrifice  and 
suffering  and  struggles,  to  remember,  and  comfort  herself 
in  remembering,  that  hers  is  a  high  mission.  After  all, 
the  noblest  thing  that  is  done  in  this  world  is  when  a 
mother  does  in  truth  and  wisdom  and  fear  of  God  train 
up  a  child.  Let  us  all  stand  back  in  her  presence.  Let 
us  call  upon  all  men  whose  aspirations  are  the  highest, 
whose  work  is  the  noblest,  to  stand  aside  and  acknowl- 
edge cheerfully,  "  Hers  is  the  best  work,  hers  is  the  no- 


THE   MOTHER   OF   JESUS.  133 

blest  work  done  in  the  world."  And  if  that  be  the  case, 
it  must  be  a  work  of  sacrifice  and  suffering,  for  there  is 
nothing  good  ever  done  on  earth  save  with  sacrifice.  Let 
the  toiling  mother  solace  herself  with  the  thought  that 
all  motherhood  has  been  dignified  and  made  sublime  by 
the  young  mother  in  the  little  town  of  Galilee,  who  was 
training  in  an  humble  home  that  child  that  was  to  be 
the  Saviour  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  the  universe. 
It  was  a  unique  task  no  doubt,  and  yet  I  say  it  has  en- 
nobled all  motherhood,  and  any  struggling,  sorrowing 
mother  may  take  comfort  in  the  thought  that  she  is  en- 
gaged in  a  like  good  work.  Blessed  be  God !  what 
mother  here  knows  of  the  high  possibilities  that  are  be- 
fore her  child?  What  Christian  mother  can  fail  to 
know  of  that  supreme  possibility,  that  blessed  certainty, 
that  she  trains  up  a  spirit  immortal  when  she  brings  up 
a  child  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 

But,  now,  please  observe  that  Mary  must  have  trained 
this  child  in  the  knowledge  of  God's  word.  My  friends 
who  are  parents,  we  abuse  everything  ;  and  so  we  abuse 
the  benefits  of  the  Sunday-school.  There  is  grievous  dan- 
ger that  we  parents  shall  turn  over  to  the  Sunday-school 
our  parental  duty  of  training  our  children  in  God's 
word.  It  is  one  of  the  perils  of  our  time.  Though  we 
have  those  in  the  Sunday-school  to  help  us  in  the  task, 
and  ought  to  be  heartily  thankful  for  their  help,  yet  the 
work  is  ours  none  che  less,  and  the  work  will,  for  the 
most  part,  remain  undone  unless  we  do  it — the  work  of 
training  our  children  in  the  knowledge  of  God's  word. 
Let  us  train  them  to  look  at  God's  word  as  the  guide  of 
their  life.  I  read  somewhere  of  a  mother  whose  husband 


134  THE   MOTHER   OF 


was  a  grossly  wicked  man,  who  used  to  cry  out  against 
all  things  religious,  and  declared  that  he  believed  not  in 
God  ;  yet  she  reared  up  a  number  of  children  by  his 
side,  and  they  all  became  Christians.  Some  friend  asked 
if  she  would  tell  how  she  managed  this.  She  said,  "  I 
never  set  my  word  against  their  father's,  but  when  he 
says  anything  against  God's  service,  I  hunt  up  a  passage 
and  say,  '  Your  father  says  so  and  so,  but  here  is  what 
your  heavenly  Father  says/  and  then  I  read  it  to  them." 
That  was  all  the  secret  she  had,  but  what  a  blessed 
secret  ! 

Parents,  learn  to  have  the  Scriptures  on  your  tongue's 
end  for  the  benefit  of  your  children.  Good  old  John 
Wesley  was  a  trifle  superstitious,  after  the  fashion  of  his 
time,  when  he  used  to  open  the  Bible  at  random  and 
make  use  of  whatever  text  he  happened  first  to  light 
upon.  Far  better  than  that  is  it  for  us  to  have  the 
mind  so  full  of  the  Scriptures,  their  teachings  so  familiar 
to  our  thought,  that  whenever  we  need  one  of  them  it 
will  come  by  natural  association  of  ideas.  And  so  Mr. 
Moody  has  taught  all  of  us  that  if  we  can  get  some  happy 
quotation  of  Scripture,  it  will  be  worth  more  than  all 
our  wisdom  in  explaining  a  difficulty  to  an  inquirer. 

4.  I  pass  on  to  say  a  word  as  to  a  later  point  in 
Mary's  history.  She  seems  to  have  unwarrantably  in- 
terfered in  the  ministry  of  her  son.  At  the  wedding  at 
Cana  she  suggested  for  him  a  course  of  action,  and  he 
said  :  "  Woman,  what  have  I  to  do  with  thee,"  or  rather 
"What  have  we  to  do  with  each  other?"  There  was 
nothing  harsh  in  this,  but  there  was  an  intimation  that 
they  had  entered  into  new  relations,  that  he  who  had 


THE    MOTHER   OF   JESUS.  135 

been  to  her  as  a  child  to  its  mother  could  not  be  con- 
trolled by  her  in  his  public  action,  and  she  must  draw 
back.  A  year  or  two  later,  when  Jesus  was  teaching  all 
the  morning  in  a  crowded  house,  and  there  were  so  many 
questions  to  be  answered  that  they  had  not  time  for  the 
mid-day  meal,  we  read  that  "his  friends"  went  forth 
to  seize  him,  for  they  said,  "  he  is  beside  himself."  Now, 
put  the  Gospel  histories  together,  and  it  appears  that 
those  friends  were  his  mother  and  his  brothers ;  and 
when  they  sent  him  a  message  over  the  heads  of  the 
crowd  in  the  house,  that  his  mother  and  brothers  were 
without  and  wanted  to  see  him,  the  answer,  too,  is  very 
remarkable.  He  said :  "  Who  is  my  mother,  and  who 
are  my  brothers  ? "  And  he  looked  around  in  a  circle 
upon  those  that  sat  about  him  and  said  :  "  Behold  my 
mother  and  my  brothers ;  for  whosoever  shall  do  the  will 
of  God,  he  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother."  His 
kindred  were  seeking  to  interfere  with  his  work,  and 
said  he  was  beside  himself.  No  wonder  men  call  Chris- 
tian earnestness  fanaticism.  Jesus  himself,  the  founder 
of  it  all — they  said  he  was  crazy.  His  own  mother  and 
his  brothers  said  this  because  he  was  in  earnest.  What 
a  comfort  there  is  for  all  of  us  in  the  application  he 
made  of  their  request :  "  Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of 
my  Father  in  Heaven,  he  is  my  brother,  and  sister, 
and  mother."  How  does  a  man  love  his  brother? 
Think  of  the  warm  affection  with  which  a  man  cher- 
ishes his  brother.  Then  think  of  the  tenderness  with 
which  a  manly  nature  loves  a  sister.  Then  add  to  these, 
yea,  compass  them  all  around  with  the  love  that  a  real 
man  has  for  his  mother — a  love  that  will  ever  grow  as 


!."»(>  THF.    MOTHER    OF    JESTS. 

he  grows  older — and  now  consider.  Jesus  has  said — it 
may  include  you  and  me,  with  all  our  unworthiness — 
"  Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  God  is  as  dear  to  me 
as  brother,  and  sister,  and  mother."  The  Scriptures 
contain  many  wonderful  things,  but  what  more  wonder- 
ful than  those  words  ? 

5.  There  is  one  other  theme,  of  which  I  know  not 
how  to  speak — Mary  at  the  cross.  Description  is  here 
dumb.  Imagination  stands  in  mute  wonder.  There 
are  many  points  of  view  from  which  to  look  at  the  cross, 
and  one  not  the  least  instructive,  no  doubt,  would  be  to 
try  to  place  yourself  in  imagination  beside  that  sorrowing 
mother,  through  whose  heart  now — according  to  old 
Simeon's  prediction  long  before — a  sword  was  passing, 
a  sword  of  cruel  suffering  and  death.  You  would  re- 
member how  sufiering  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of 
sin  in  this  world,  how  suffering  was  the  necessary  con- 
dition of  human  salvation,  even  that  poor  mother's  suf- 
fering as  she  looked  upon  her  atoning  son.  Then  re- 
member how  out  of  his  death  came  life  again,  and  out 
of  that  sorrow  came  springing  joy.  I  cannot  speak  of 
that ;  who  can?  But  you  might  sit  down  sometime  and 
think  it  all  over.  Try  to  stand  beside  the  mother  at  the 
cross,  try  to  imagine  how  she  felt,  and  try,  also,  to  im- 
agine how  he  felt  towards  her ;  for  amid  all  the  strange 
sorrow  of  that  dark  hour,  he  that  was  dying  thought  of  his 
widowed  mother,  and  felt,  as  every  true  man  feels,  that 
he  must  make  some  provision  for  her  future.  Yea, 
amid  that  great  event  of  the  universe,  with  that  dark- 
ness settling  down  upon  all  his  soul  as  the  sin-bearer,  he 
made  provision  for  his  widowed  mother.  Yet,  what  a 


THE   MOTHER   OF   JESUS.  137 

simple  provision  it  was  !  He  had  a  loving  friend,  and 
to  him  he  said  :  "  Take  her ;  do  you  be  her  son  and  she 
will  be  your  mother,"  and  that  was  all. 

6.  And  now,  finally,  think  a  moment  of  Mary  in 
heaven.  If  ever  there  comes  a  pang  to  the  glorified 
ones,  methinks  Mary  must  look  down  with  unutterable 
grief  upon  the  thousands  and  millions  that  almost  wor- 
ship her  instead  of  worshiping  her  son,  the  Saviour. 

"  0  centuries 
That  roll,  in  vision,  your  futurities 

My  future  grave  athwart, — 
Whose  murmurs  seem  to  reach  me  while  I  keep 

Watch  o'er  this  sleep, — 
Say  of  me  as  the  Heavenly  said — '  Thou  art 
The  blessedest  of  women  ! ' — blessedest, 
Not  holiest,  not  noblest — no  high  name, 
Whose  height  misplaced  may  pierce  me  like  a  shame, 
When  I  sit  meek  in  heaven  !  " 

— MRS.  BROWNING,  The  True  Mary. 

It  is  not  unnatural,  it  is  because  they  have  forgotten 
that  he,  the  divine  one,  is  himself  human.  The  human 
heart  longs  after  human  sympathy,  and  the  consciences  of 
guilty  men  make  them  wish  for  a  human  mediator  be- 
tween themselves  and  the  God  they  shrink  from.  Luther 
tells  us  that  in  youth,  with  his  Romish  education,  he 
was  afraid  of  Christ.  He  never  heard  a  word  said  about 
Christ,  save  as  the  babe  in  the  mother's  arms,  or  the 
sacrifice  on  the  cross,  or  the  Judge  in  the  last  day.  His 
idea  was  that  he  must  call  upon  the  saints,  and  especially 
upon  the  Virgin  Mary,  to  pity  him  and  intercede  for 
him  with  Christ.  When  people  have  such  views  of 


138  THE    MOTHER   OF   JIMS. 

Christ,  no  wonder  they  seek  some  human  mediator.  The 
only  cure  for  it  all  is  to  know  that  Christ  the  divine  was 
truly  human,  that  Mary  was  no  more  truly  human  than 
was  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Mary.  Truly  divine  and  also 
truly  human,  he  is  able  to  sympathize  with  us  in  our 
infirmities,  to  lay  a  hand  of  love  and  pity  upon  our  poor 
einful  heads,  and  yet,  with  the  other  hand,  to  lay  hold 
upon  the  very  pillars  of  God's  throne,  and  to  be  our 
Advocate  with  the  Father,  our  one  Mediator, — all  the 
Mediator  we  need  or  should  desire.  O  Jesus,  son  of 
Mary,  and  yet  Son  of  God,  before  the  mystery  of  thine 
Incarnation  we  bow,  and  trusting  in  the  mystery  of 
thine  intercession,  we  pray  thee  make  us,  make  us, 
wholly  thine  ! 


X. 

THE  APOSTLE  PAUL  AS  A  PREACHER* 

Unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is  this  grace  given, 
that  I  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the.  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ.— Eph.  3  :  8. 

"VTUMEROUS  as  were  the  functions  of  the  Apostle 
-L*  Paul,  he  was,  most  of  all  things,  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel.  The  fact  is  prominent  in  his  history,  and  was 
deeply  felt  by  himself.  Everything,  with  him,  was  made 
subordinate  to  this  vocation.  His  whole  life  was  wrapped 
up  in  it.  Though  often  sad  and  weary,  and  not  un- 
frequently  (it  would  seem)  desponding,  he  never  turned 
aside  from  this  great  work.  When  difficulties  and  dan- 
gers gathered  around,  when  foes  were  threatening  and 
timid  friends  entreating,  he  could  say,  "  But  none  of 
these  things  move  me ;  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto 
myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and 
the  ministry  which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
to  testify  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of  God." 

And  Paul  was  the  greatest  of  all  preachers.  Of 
course,  we  omit  from  the  comparison  him  who  spake 
"  as  never  man  spake."  There  was  in  his  preaching 
such  a  continual  self-assertion,  such  a  sublime  and 
holy  egotism,  that  in  this,  as  in  every  other  re- 

*  Sermon  as  chaplain  to  the  University  of  Virginia,  May,  1857. 
Printed  in  pamphlet  form  at  the  request  of  many  students  and  of  the 
professors. 

139 


140  THE   APOSTLE    PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER. 

spect,  his  character  is  unique  and  peculiar,  and  we 
never  think  of  comparing  him  with  any  mere  man. 
There  have  been  many  gifted  men,  gifted  by  nature  and 
grace,  who  have  devoted  themselves  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry ;  God  be  thanked  for  them  all,  and  God  grant 
that  there  may  be  many  more  hereafter !  but  in  the  esti- 
mation of  every  one  who  diligently  studies  his  character 
and  history,  Paul  must  stand,  among  all  preachers,  un- 
rivalled and  alone.  Thoroughly  to  analyze  his  great 
powers  is  a  task  for  which  I  have  no  talent,  and  my 
hearers,  under  present  circumstances,  would  perhaps 
have  little  inclination.  I  mean  only  to  present  some 
points  in  connection  with  Paul  as  a  preacher,  the  con- 
sideration of  which  I  trust  may  be  blessed  to  our  benefit. 
1.  The  first  of  these  points  is 'mentioned  mainly  be- 
cause of  its  relation  to  what  will  follow.  It  is  the 
remarkable  adaptation  of  his  preaching  to  the  particular 
audience.  He  has  himself  stated  the  principle  upon 
which  he  acted  in  seeking  this  adaptation  :  "  I  am  made 
all  things  to  all  men."  This  saying  has  come  to  be 
grossly  perverted,  being  constantly  applied  as  a  reproach 
to  the  fickle  and  time-serving.  The  apostle  has  just 
before  said  what  perfectly  explains  it:  "To  the  Jews  I 
became  as  a  Jew,  that  I  might  gain  the  Jews ;  .  .  . 
to  them  that  are  without  law,  as  without  law  .  .  .  that 
I  might  gain  them  that  are  without  law.  To  the  weak 
became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might  gain  the  weak :  I  am 
made  all  things  to  all  men,  that  I  might  by  all  means 
save  some."  He  elsewhere  declares  the  same  principle 
£3  regulating  his  general  conduct :  "  Even  as  I  please 
all  men  in  all  things,  that  they  might  be  saved." 


THE   APOSTLE    PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER.  141 

We  have  striking  illustrations  of  this,  in  some  of  his 
recorded  discourses. 

At  Antioch,  in  Pisidia,  he  preached  first  in  the  syna- 
gogue, to  Jews  and  proselytes.  Here  he  conformed,  as 
did  Stephen  in  his  address  before  the  Sanhedrin,  to  the 
Jewish  custom  of  commencing  with  a  sketch  of  the 
national  history.  This  would  conciliate  his  audience, 
by  bringing  to  mind  facts  of  which  they  were  all  proud, 
and  in  which  he  and  they  had  a  common  interest ;  and 
from  one  point  or  another  of  that  history  the  speaker 
could  easily  and  gracefully  turn,  as  did  Paul  on  this  oc- 
casion, to  the  subject  on  which  he  wished  to  dwell. 
The  promised  seed  of  David  he  declared  was  come  in 
the  person  of  Jesus.  He  pointed  out  the  fact  that  the 
condemnation,  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  were  in 
fulfilment  of  prophecies  which  they  all  believed.  He 
proclaimed  to  them  through  Jesus  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  and  that  complete  justification,  to  the  believer, 
which  could  not  be  obtained  through  the  law  of  Moses. 
He  warned  them  not  to  neglect  this  proclamation,  in 
language  quoted  from  a  prophet.  All  is  from  the  Jew- 
ish point  of  view,  and  after  the  Jewish  method ;  to  the 
Jews  he  became  as  a  Jew,  that  he  might  gain  the  Jews  ; 
and  thus  regarded,  nothing  could  be  more  felicitous  than 
the  conduct  of  this  address. 

At  Lystra,  when  he  had  wrought  a  miracle  of  heal- 
ing, and  the  astonished  and  ignorant  pagans  were  about 
to  offer  sacrifice  to  him  and  Barnabas,  as  being  "the 
gods  come  down  in  the  likeness  of  men,"  he  spoke,  to 
restrain  them,  a  few  words  which  contained  the  simplest 
truths  of  natural  religion  :  "  Sirs,  why  do  ye  these 


142  THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A   PREACHER. 

things  ?  We  also  are  men  of  like  passions  with  you, 
and  preach  unto  you  that  ye  should  turn  from  these 
vanities  unto  the  living  God,  which  made  heaven,  and 
earth,  and  the  sea,  and  all  things  that  are  therein:  who 
in  times  past  suffered  all  nations  to  walk  in  their  own 
ways  :  nevertheless,  he  left  not  himself  without  witness, 
in  that  he  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain  from  heaven, 
and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  our  hearts  with  food  and 
gladness."  These  truths  were  obviously  appropriate  to 
the  occasion,  and  we  learn  that  they  sufficed  to  accom- 
plish the  apostle's  object.  But  it  is  stated,  concerning 
the  same  visit  to  Lystra,  that  "there  they  preached 
the  Gospel,"  and  that  when  he  had  been  stoned,  "  the 
disciples  stood  round  about  him."  We  see  then  that  his 
general  preaching  at  that  place  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  natural  religion. 

At  Athens,  every  one  has  been  struck  by  the  skill 
with  which  he  sought  to  avoid  offending  the  prejudices 
or  violating  the  laws  of  his  hearers.  He  began  by  com- 
plimenting them  as  in  all  respects  an  uncommonly 
religious  people.  He  availed  himself  of  an  altar  "  to 
the  unknown  god,"  to  speak  of  the  true  God  without 
incurring  the  penalty  denounced  against  the  introduction 
of  new  deities.  In  a  few  brief  sentences,  he  assailed, 
pointedly  but  courteously,  several  leading  errors  which 
prevailed  among  the  Athenians,  particularly  their  idol- 
atry and  their  proud  conceit  of  distinct  national  origin. 
He  quoted,  not  inspired  Hebrew  prophets,  but  a  senti- 
ment found  in  the  writings  of  two  Greek  poets,  one  of 
them  from  his  native  Cilicia.  And  he  carefully  delayed 
to  the  close  his  declaration  of  the  fact,  so  important,  yet 


THE   APOSTLE   PAUL    AS    A    PREACHER.  143 

so  likely  to  be  rejected,  that  Christ  had  been  raised  from 
the  dead.  Was  ever  any  discourse  more  skilfully 
adapted  ? 

So,  when  standing  before  Felix,  he  did  not  directly 
denounce  the  tyrant's  vices,  for  of  course  he  would  not 
have  been  heard  for  a  moment,  but  he  dwelt  upon  the 
opposite  virtues.  To  a  wicked  man  he  spoke  of  right- 
eousness ;  to  an  incontinent  man,  of  self-control ;  to  an 
unjust  earthly  judge,  of  the  judgment  to  come. 

A  similar  skill  in  adaptation,  and  care  to  conciliate,  is 
observable  in  the  Apostle's  letters.  You  can  form  a 
tolerably  complete  idea  of  the  history  and  present  con- 
dition of  a  Church,  or  of  the  character  and  circumstances 
of  an  individual,  from  his  letters  to  such  an  individual 
or  Church.  And  you  see  everywhere  how  observant  he 
is  of  all  courtesies  and  charities,  how  careful  first  to 
commend  what  he  can  in  those  who  must  on  other 
accounts  be  censured,  how  anxious  to  win  and  save  even 
amid  his  severest  rebukes. 

The  limit  to  this  desire  to  please,  the  Apostle  has 
clearly  defined ;  as  when  he  reminds  the  Thessalonians 
that  he  had  not  practiced  any  trickery  in  preaching,  nor 
used  flattering  words,  nor  sought  glory  of  men  ;  "but 
as  we  were  allowed  of  God  to  be  put  in  trust  with  the 
gospel,  even  so  we  speak ;  not  as  pleasing  men,  but  God, 
which  trieth  our  hearts."  However  great  his  disposition 
to  conciliate,  he  would  not  sacrifice  principle — would 
never  offend  God,  to  please  men. 

Now,  with  all  this  variety  of  adaptation  to  particular 
hearers,  connect 

2.  His  adhering  constantly  to  the  great  central  truths 


144  THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER. 

of  the  gospel.  That  cross,  in  which  alone  he  "gloried," 
which  alone  he  "  determined  to  know,"  is  always  before 
his  mind.  Widely  as  he  ranges  over  the  fields  of  truth 
and  duty,  he  never  loses  sight  of  that  grand  central 
object;  never  ceases  to  feel  himself  in  its  presence. 
Every  doctrine,  and  every  precept,  is  presented  in  such 
a  way  that  we  feel  it  to  have  relation  to  the  atoning 
work  of  our  Saviour.  For  instance,  servants  are  urged 
to  be  honest  and  obedient,  "  that  they  may  adorn  the 
doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things."  Husbands 
are  exhorted  to  "  love  their  wives,  even  as  Christ  also 
loved  the  Church;"  and  wives  to  "submit  themselves 
unto  their  own  husbands,  as  unto  the  Lord  ;  for  the  hus- 
band is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the  head 
of  the  Church."  When  pressing  upon  the  Corinthians 
the  duty  of  giving  for  the  relief  of  their  poor  brethren, 
he  adds,  "Thanks  be  unto  God  for  his  unspeakable 
gift." 

The  example  of  Paul  in  this  respect  is  not  always 
followed.  In  seeking  for  adaptation,  how  often  do  men 
fail  to  adhere  to  these  same  great  truths  ?  Very  anxious 
to  make  the  sermon  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  accom- 
modated to  the  prejudices,  or  suited  to  the  taste  of  the 
audience,  they  neglect  to  have  it  present  the  essence  of 
the  gospel — to  have  it  full  of  those  truths  which  relate 
to  sin  and  salvation.  How  much  preaching,  by  able  and 
earnest  men,  is  thus  comparatively  lost,  as  to  all  the 
most  important  ends  of  preaching  the  gospel !  Those 
men,  and  classes  of  men,  who  have  been  eminently 
useful  as  ministers,  in  actually  converting  sinners  and 
building  up  believers,  have  been  remarkable  for  con- 


THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS    A    PREACHER.  145 

stantly  reiterating,  in  however  various  connections,  and 
with  whatever  freshness  of  illustration,  the  same  funda- 
mental, saving  truths.  A  glance  at  the  history  of  the 
most  successful  preachers  would  show  this  to  be  true. 
It  is  true  now  of  all  the  really  useful  among  "  revival 
preachers;"  and  of  many  a  plain  man,  whose  extraordi- 
nary success  it  is  difficult  to  account  for,  until  we  observe 
the  constant  recurrence  in  his  discourses  of  the  truths 
which  belong  to  salvation.  Surely  the  most  gifted  and 
cultivated  ought  to  imitate  this  excellent  peculiarity; 
surely  right-minded  hearers  ought  to  prefer  and  encour- 
age it.  Let  the  preacher,  like  Paul,  adapt,  conciliate, 
please;  but  let  him,  also  like  Paul,  bring  everything  into 
relation  to  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  for  otherwise  he  is 
not  preaching  the  gospel  at  all. 

3.  Observe,  again,  the  Apostle's  simplicity  and  direct- 
ness in  presenting  the  truth.  Every  one  is  familiar 
with  his  defence,  in  the  beginning  of  the  first  letter  to 
the  Corinthians,  of  his  course  in  this  particular.  We 
know  how  he  was  complained  of  for  the  plainness  of  his 
mode  of  preaching,  and  how  he  resisted  all  the  pressure, 
and  would  not  practice  the  artificial  rhetoric  which  was 
then  fashionable. 

Indeed,  we  are  unwilling  to  think  of  him  as  acting 
otherwise.  Whether  we  consider  Paul's  personal  char- 
acter, or  the  fact  of  his  inspiration,  it  is  felt  to  be  inap- 
propriate and  unworthy  that  he  should  be  searching 
after  mere  prettinesses,  should  be  seeking  to  heighten 
the  simple  loveliness  of  heavenly  truth,  by  the  meretri- 
cious adornments  of  a  would-be  eloquence.  And  there 
is  significance  in  this  strong,  instinctive  feeling.  If  it 
10 


THE   APOSTLE    PAUL   AS    A    PREACHER. 

would  have  been  wrong  for  Paul,  how  is  it  right  for 
others,  who,  though  humble  and  uninspired,  are  yet 
proclaiming  the  same  divinely-given  truths,  and  should 
be  keeping  in  view  the  same  sublime  object,  to  save 
men's  souls  ? 

At  the  same  time,  all  know  that  the  Apostle's  speak- 
ing and  writing  possess  much  of  real  beauty.  It  need 
not  be  misunderstood  if  we  say  that  Paul  is  an  eminent 
example  of  the  right  use  of  imagination.  Among  his 
remarkable  combination  of  mental  qualities,  it  is  clear 
that  he  possessed  imagination  of  a  high  order.  It  is  not 
shown  by  elaborate  and  multiplied  figures  for  mere  or- 
nament. Occasionally  we  meet  with  an  unobtrusive 
image  of  exquisite  beauty ;  as  when,  in  the  address  at 
Athens,  he  represents  men  as  groping  in  their  blindness 
after  an  object  that  is  near:  "That  they  should  seek  the 
Lord,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  him,  and  find  him, 
though  he  be  not  far  from  every  one  of  us."  But  his 
power  of  imagination  is  seen  mainly  in  the  shaping  of 
his  thoughts  in  general ;  in  the  clear  and  delicate  out- 
line given  to  each  particular  thought,  whether  argument 
or  precept,  as  it  came  moulded  from  his  mind.  It  is  in 
the  same  way  that  we  find  the  finest  imagination  em- 
ployed by  all  the  men  who  have  been  most  truly  elo- 
quent, by  Demosthenes  and  Daniel  Webster,  by  Chry- 
sostom  and  Robert  Hall.  They  could  not  have  been 
eloquent  without  possessing  this  faculty  in  an  eminent 
degree ;  but  they  have  used  it,  not  to  send  off  mere  fire- 
works of  fancy,  but  to  heat  into  a  glow  the  solid  body 
of  their  thought.  The  beautiful  is  thus  by  no  means 
abjured,  but  subordinated.  The  gratification  of  our 


THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A   PREACHER.          147 

aesthetic  sensibilities  may  render  great  service,  as  auxil- 
iary to  the  instruction,  conviction,  persuasion,  which  are 
the  great  objects  of  preaching  the  gospel ;  but  it  must 
always  be  held  auxiliary.  The  poet  and  the  novelist 
aim  to  please,  and  incidentally  to  instruct ;  the  preacher 
to  do  men  good,  and  to  please  only  as  contributing  to 
this  higher  end. 

I  have  a  practical  object  in  saying  all  this,  which  may 
justify  what  would  else  be  perhaps  out  of  place.  Not  a 
little  of  the  preaching  done  by  good  men  is  weighed 
down  by  rhetoric,  falsely  so-called.  The  evil  is  wide- 
spread and  well  known.  Its  existence  and  continuance 
are  not  wholly  due  directly  to  those  who  preach,  but  re- 
sult in  some  measure  from  the  wrong  taste  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  preacher  is  very  naturally  led  astray  by  this. 
He  sees  that  the  people  for  a  time  flock  to  hear,  and 
loudly  praise,  those  who  speak  in  this  fashion.  He 
cannot  do  them  good  by  his  preaching  unless  they  will 
hear  him.  It  seems  necessary  to  yield  to  what  appears 
to  be  the  popular  taste,  though  known  to  be  false.  Es- 
pecially where  one  possesses  more  imagination  than 
sober  judgment,  such  a  process  of  reasoning  is  very 
likely  to  convince  him.  Some  little  allowance,  there- 
fore, may  commonly  "be  made  for  those  who  show  this 
ambitiousness  of  style,  this  effort  after  eloquence. 

The  evil  must  be  corrected,  partly  by  preachers  them- 
selves; but  those  among  them  who  perceive  and  deplore 
it,  are  able  to  accomplish  comparatively  little  except  in 
their  own  case.  It  is  so  easy  to  break  the  force  of  the 
most  unanswerable  argument,  coming  from  them,  by  a 
sarcasm,  as  that  they  only  oppose  that  style  of  preaching 


148          THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER. 

of  which  they  do  not  happen  to  be  masters.  The  cure 
must  come  mainly  from  intelligent  men  who  are  not 
preachers.  They  can  powerfully  influence  public  senti- 
ment, and  they  ought  to  speak  their  mind.  There  can 
be  no  question  as  to  what  all  such  men  think  on  the 
subject,  but  they  are  often  restrained  from  strongly  ex- 
pressing their  opinion  by  a  false  delicacy,  a  mistaken 
respect  for  the  ministerial  office.  In  our  age  and  coun- 
try the  relation  of  preacher  and  hearers  must  be  freely 
discussed,  like  everything  else.  And  the  half-cultivated 
are  everywhere  doing  this.  The  merits,  not  so  mucli  of 
different  modes  of  preaching  as  of  different  preachers, 
form  a  prominent  topic  of  conversation  in  many  circles. 
That  bad  taste  which  forms  the  most  erroneous  opinions 
on  the  subject  is  also  boldest  in  expressing  them.  Thus 
the  evil  is  greatly  augmented  by  loud  voices  of  praise 
or  blame.  Cultivated  men  must  exert  themselves  to 
correct  it,  though  the  task  should  sometimes  painfully 
conflict  with  their  reverence  for  the  sacred  office.  They 
must  freely  commend  or  condemn,  not  only  general 
methods,  but  individual  examples.  I  call  upon  those 
who  have,  and  those  who  soon  will  have,  influence  over 
public  opinion,  as  they  value  God's  great  appointed 
means  of  converting  the  world,  to  do  what  they  can 
towards  correcting  the  popular  taste  ;  to  take  every  op- 
portunity and  means  of  showing  the  people  what  good 
taste  requires,  what  alone  is  appropriate  to  the  most 
solemn  of  all  earthly  positions,  that  of  the  man  who 
stands  up  to  preach  the  gospel. 

4.  Observe,  in  the  next  place,  the  Apostle's  tender- 
ness as  a  preacher.     Hear  him  speaking  of  false  profes- 


THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A   PREACHER.  149 

sors  :  "  For  many  walk,  of  whom  I  have  told  you 
often,  and  now  tell  you  even  weeping,  that  they  are  the 
enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ."  Hear  his  farewell 
words  to  the  elders  of  the  Church  at  Ephesus  :  "  And 
remember,  that  by  the  space  of  three  years,  I  ceased  not 
to  warn  every  one  night  and  day  ivith  tears''  What  a 
scene  was  that — this  great  and  inspired  man,  speaking 
to  the  people  both  "  publicly  and  from  house  to  house," 
warning  them  with  tears ;  telling  them  of  God's  amaz- 
ing love,  and  his  tremendous  wrath ;  of  their  guilt, 
their  helpless  condemnation,  and  the  one  way  of  salva- 
tion. Christians,  too,  he  warned  of  the  false  teachers 
that  should  enter  from  without,  like  grievous  wolves 
into  the  fold,  and  that  should  rise  up  among  themselves ; 
and  he  would  weep  as  he  entreated  them  to  hold  fast 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  to  adorn  their  profession,  to 
live  for  the  salvation  of  men  and  the  glory  of  God. 
Thus,  night  and  day  for  three  years,  he  ceased  not  to 
warn  every  one  with  tears. 

And  why  should  not  Paul  weep  ?  and  every  preacher 
and  every  Christian  weep  ?  See  the  condition  of  our  fel- 
low-men, our  friends,  our  kindred,  as  depicted,  not  by  our 
wild  fancy  or  morbid  fears,  but  by  the  calm  teachings  of 
the  Word  of  God.  They  are  "condemned  already,"  "  the 
wrath  of  God  abideth  on  them,"  their  "  steps  take  hold 
on  hell."  Can  we  half  realize  what  is  meant  by  these 
fearful  sayings,  and  not  weep  ?  But  worse.  We  tell 
them  of  the  Saviour,  who  died  that  we  might  live, 
and  who  ever  lives  to  save ;  we  tell  them  of  free  par- 
don, of  full  salvation,  to  every  penitent  believer  in  him ; 
of  his  redeeming  love,  his  gracious  invitations  and 


150  THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER. 

precious  promises.  We  tell  of  eternal  bliss  and  eter- 
nal woe,  of  their  own  imminent  and  increasing  danger. 
We  urge  all  that  is  terrible  in  God's  wrath,  all  that 
is  moving  in  his  mercy.  And  they  listen  as  calmly, 
they  turn  away  as  unconcerned,  as  though  it  were  all 
a  trifle  or  a  dream.  O,  where  is  our  pity,  where  our 
love,  that  we  do  not  weep  tears  of  blood?  that  we 
do  not  say  with  the  Psalmist,  u  Rivers  of  waters 
run  down  mine  eyes,  because  they  keep  not  thy 
law?" 

It  is  well  that  the  gospel  induces  tenderness,  since 
the  preacher  has  to  speak  such  awful  truths.  It  is 
no  light  thing  to  look  into  the  eyes  of  one  you  know, 
and  respect,  and  love,  and  charge  him  with  being  a 
vile  sinner — charge  selfishness,  and  pride,  and  per- 
vading ungodliness,  upon  what  he  accounts  his  best 
actions ;  to  warn  him  of  the  wrath  to  come ;  to  bid 
him  tremble  lest  he  receive  deserved  damnation,  and 
reflect  now  what  will  be  his  unavailing  remorse  if  "  in 
hell  he  should  lift  up  his  eyes,  being  in  torment."  It 
is  well  that  the  gospel,  which,  along  with  its  promise  of 
salvation  to  the  believer,  requires  us  to  say,  "  He  that 
believeth  not  shall  be  damned,"  should  also  inspire  that 
feeling  of  tenderness  with  which  the  painful  duty  ought 
to  be  performed. 

But  let  us  look  again  at  the  Apostle's  tears.  Why 
should  Paul  weep  as  he  warned  ?  He  feared  that  his 
warning  might  be  in  vain ;  and  often  it  was  in  vain. 
With  all  his  abilities  and  inspiration,  men  often  heard 
without  heeding  ;  and  all  his  exhortations  in  many  cases 
failed  to  restrain  even  professed  believers  from  shameful 


THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A   PREACHER.          151 

sin,  from  utter  apostasy.  Need  we  be  surprised  that  the 
same  thing  happens  now  ? 

5.  The  remaining  point  of  which  I  would  speak  is,  the 
disadvantages  under  which  Paul  labored.  This  greatest 
of  all  preachers  appears  to  have  had  some  serious  phys- 
ical disqualification.  Let  us  consider  the  evidence  of  this 
fact,  and  the  lesson  it  teaches. 

In  the  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  he  quotes  the 
disparaging  language  of  his  enemies :  "  For  his  letters 
(say  they)  are  weighty  and  powerful ;  but  his  bodily 
presence  is  weak,  and  his  speech  contemptible."  Making 
allowance  for  the  exaggerations  of  a  hostile  spirit,  it  is 
yet  plain,  even  from  this,  that  his  presence  was  not  com- 
manding, not  impressive,  but  rather  the  opposite. 

In  the  course  of  his  letter  to  the  Galatians,  he  seeks  to 
revive  their  personal  affection  for  himself  (which  the  Ju- 
daizing  teachers  had  endeavored  to  destroy),  by  remind- 
ing them  of  the  time  when  he  commenced  his  labors 
among  them.  Notice  his  language :  "  Ye  know  how, 
through  infirmity  of  the  flesh,  I  preached  the  gospel  unto 
you  at  the  first."  The  word  through  must  be  here  taken 
to  mean  on  account  of — the  original  naturally  conveys 
this  sense,  and  will  hardly  bear  another — so  that  we 
understand  him  to  say  :  "  Ye  know  how,  on  account  of 
bodily  infirmity,  I  preached  the  gospel  to  you  at  the 
first."  When  he  first  arrived  in  Galatia,  he  did  not  pro- 
pose to  tarry  there ;  but  some  bodily  infirmity  making 
it  necessary  to  remain,  he  began  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
them.  He  adds :  "  And  my  temptation  (trial)  which  was 
in  my  flesh  ye  despised  not,  nor  rejected  ;  but  received 
me  as  an  angel  of  God,  even  as  Christ  Jesus."  The  phys- 


152  THE   APOSTLE    PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER. 

ical  affection  before  mentioned,  he  here  calls  his  trial. 
He  had  evidently  feared  that  on  account  of  this  physical 
trial  they  would  contemptuously  reject  him  and  his  mes- 
sage ;  and  he  sets  in  strong  contrast  with  that  expecta- 
tion the  fact  that  they  had  received  him  with  the  great- 
est possible  respect  and  reverence. 

In  Second  Corinthians,  again,  he  speaks  of  certain  re- 
markable visions  with  which  he  had  been  favored,  above 
fourteen  years  before,  which  would  be  soon  after  his  con- 
version, adding  :  "  And  lest  I  should  be  exalted  above 
measure  through  the  abundance  of  the  revelations,  there 
was  given  me  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  the  messenger  of  Satan 
to  buffet  me,  lest  I  should  be  exalted  above  measure." 
Nothing  could  be  better  calculated  to  humble  a  preacher, 
in  danger  of  being  elated  on  account  of  his  extraordinary 
privileges,  than  to  suffer  from  some  grievous  bodily  af- 
fection— some  marked  distortion,  it  may  be,  of  form  or 
feature — which  destroyed  all  impressiveness  of  appear- 
ance, which  made  him  continually  fear  lest  men  should 
"despise"  and  "reject"  him.  If  it  were  a  mental  de- 
fect, or  a  fault  of  character,  he  might  hope  in  some  meas- 
ure to  correct  it.  But  this  physical  disqualification, 
which  he  is  utterly  unable  to  remedy,  must  be  a  constant 
source  of  distress  and  humiliation.  The  apostle  deeply 
felt  it,  and  prayed  earnestly  for  the  removal  of  the  affec- 
tion. "  For  this  cause  I  besought  the  Lord  thrice  that 
it  might  depart  from  me.  And  he  said  unto  me,  My 
grace  is  sufficient  for  thee ;  for  my  strength  is  made  per- 
fect in  weakness."  The  distressing  disadvantage  was 
not  removed.  He  was  taught  that  under  all  disadvan- 
tages Divine  grace  would  be  sufficient  to  uphold  and 


THE   APOSTLE    PAUL   AS   A    PREACHER.  153 

prosper  him,  for  the  strength  of  the  Lord  attains  its  per- 
fect manifestation  when  exercised  through  feeble  instru- 
ments. And  he  had  learned  by  this  time  to  endure  pa- 
tiently his  infirmity,  as  useful  for  his  own  humbling ; 
yea,  he  had  learned  to  exult  in  it,  as  conclusively  show- 
ing that  his  great  successes  were  due  to  no  human  influ- 
ence, but  to  Divine  power.  "Most  gladly,  therefore,  will 
I  rather  glory  in  mine  infirmities,  that  the  power  of 
Christ  may  rest  upon  me.  Therefore  I  take  pleasure  in 
infirmities,  in  reproaches,  in  necessities,  in  persecutions, 
in  distresses,  for  Christ's  sake;  for  when  I  am  weak, 
then  am  I  strong." 

All  men  appreciate  the  great  advantage,  to  a  preach- 
er as  to  any  other  public  speaker,  of  a  commanding 
and  engaging  appearance.  We  feel  the  effect  of  it,  as 
soon  as  such  a  man  arises  to  address  us.  And  if  the 
speaker's  presence  be  not  merely  unattractive,  but  pain- 
fully and  ridiculously  peculiar,  it  inevitably  diminishes 
the  impressiveness  of  what  he  may  say.  Yet,  be  it  well 
observed,  and  forever  remembered,  that  the  most  useful 
preacher  that  ever  lived,  was  in  this  respect  signally 
lacking.  God's  strength  is  indeed  made  perfect  in  weak- 
ness. Let  the  man  who  truly  desires  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel, and  who  mourns  that  he  does  not  possess  those  phys- 
ical gifts  which  seem  almost  indispensable  to  eloquence, 
take  to  himself  with  humble  joy  that  blessed  assurance, 
"My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee." 

My  hearers,  one  word  more.  The  same  glorious  gos- 
pel which  Paul  preached  has  been  handed  down  to  us. 
However  feebly  presented,  it  is  "the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,  to  every  one  that  believeth."  Paul  felt  him- 


154  THE   APOSTLE   PAUL   AS   A   PREACHER. 

self  but  a  vessel  of  clay,  bearing  the  precious  treasure  of 
the  gospel.  That  same  precious  treasure  is  offered  to 
you.  O,  reject  it  not — I  beseech  you — I  warn  you.  O, 
believe  on  that  Saviour,  whose  ministers  labor  awhile, 
and  one  after  another  pass  away, but  who  is  himself  "the 
same,  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  forever." 


XI. 

THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES. 

And  that  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  holy  Scriptures,  which  are 
able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.— 2  Tim.  3 :  15.* 

\\7HATEVER  we  may  say,  it  is  to  be  admitted  that 
*  *  there  are  wide  and  potent  differences  among  the 
races  of  mankind.  The  Galatians  who  received  Paul  so 
joyfully,  with  such  impulsive  affection,  and  a  few  years 
afterward  had  turned  away  from  him,  were  the  same 
Gauls  whom  Caesar  described  not  long  before,  the  same 
as  the  Gallic  races  of  mankind  to-day,  impulsive  and 
changeable :  and  no  small  part  of  what  we  prize  most 
in  our  civilization  is  to  be  discerned  in  our  German  fore- 
fathers, as  Tacitus  describes  them  in  a  beautiful  little 
treatise  he  wrote  about  the  manners,  customs  and  char- 
acter of  the  Germans.  Many  other  elements  of  our  civ- 
ilization, the  things  that  contribute  most  to  make  our 
life  desirable,  come  to  us  from  the  great  classic 
nations  of  antiquity.  Grecian  philosophy,  Grecian  art, 
Grecian  poetry  and  eloquence,  have  made  their  mark  on 
all  that  we  delight  in  ;  Roman  law  and  the  Roman 
genius  for  government  have  much  to  do  with  what  is 

*  The  author  has  quite  a  different  sermon  from  the  same  text,  en- 
titled, "  Three  Questions  as  to  the  Bible,"  published  in  tract  form  by 
the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  Philadelphia. 

155 


156  THE   HOLY  SCRIPTURES. 

best  in  our  law  and  government.  And  yet,  when  you  have 
made  allowance  for  all  these,  ample  and  cordial  allow- 
ance for  race  characteristics,  and  for  the  effect  of  all  that 
is  Grecian  and  all  that  is  JR-oman,  who  can  deny  that  a 
large  part  of  what  we  prize  most  and  enjoy  most  in  our 
life  of  to-day  has  not  been  explained  from  any  of  those 
sources — that  it  comes  from  the  Bible,  that  it  comes 
from  Christianity  ?  There  are  many  men  who  think 
they  are  now  so  refined  that  they  have  gotten  above 
Christianity,  and  yet  it  is  Christianity  that  gave  them 
the  said  refinement.  Now,  if  all  this  is  true,  it  ought 
never  to  be  out  of  place  nor  beyond  our  sympathies  to 
speak  of  the  Bible — the  Bible  that  has  done  so  much 
for  all  that  we  like  best  in  our  homes,  our  social  life, 
our  public  institutions — the  Bible  that  has  been  the  com- 
fort and  joy  of  many  of  those  we  have  loved  best  in 
other  days — the  Bible  that  is  the  brightest  hope  of  many 
of  us  for  time  and  for  eternity — the  Bible  that  gives  the 
only  well-founded  hope  for  mortal,  and  yet  immortal 
man,  in  regard  to  the  great  future. 

"  Thou  hast  known  the  holy  Scriptures."  That  did 
not  mean  the  same  thing  for  Timothy,  exactly,  as  for 
us.  It  meant  our  Old  Testament ;  for  of  course  when 
Timothy  was  a  child  the  New  Testament  was  not  yet 
in  existence.  How  do  I  know  that  it  meant  our  Old 
Testament?  How  do  I  know  that  our  Old  Testament 
is  a  book  of  Divine  origin  ?  Is  there  any  way  to  prove 
that,  which  is  not  dependent  upon  scholarship,  which 
can  be  easily  stated?  apart,  I  mean,  from  its  internal 
evidence  of  its  own  inspiration  through  its  wisdom, 
power,  and  blessing.  I  know  it  in  this  way.  The 


THE    HOLY   SCRIPTURES.  157 

term  "  Scripture  "  or  "  Scriptures  "  was  in  our  Lord's 
time  a  technical  term,  just  as  it  is  among 
us.  When  a  man  among  the  Jews  spoke  of 
the  "  Scripture,"  when  Jesus  said,  "  The  Scripture 
cannot  be  broken,"  everybody  understood  that  it  meant 
a  certain  well-known  and  well-defined  collection  of 
sacred  writings  known  to  all  his  hearers.  Jesus  and 
His  Apostles  have  testified  that  the  "  Scriptures "  are 
divine.  Now  do  I  know  what  writings  they  were  ? 
Yes ;  I  know  from  outside  sources,  very  varied  and 
ample.  I  know  from  the  great  Jewish  historian  and 
scholar,  Josephus,  who  expressed  himself  very  distinctly 
as  to  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews,  and  declares  that  no 
man  would  venture  to  add  to  the  number  or  to  take 
away  from  them.  I  know  from  the  Jewish  writings  of 
a  later  period,  embodying  their  traditions  of  the  New 
Testament  time  and  of  earlier  times,  the  Talmud,  in 
which  the  collection  of  sacred  writings  described  is 
precisely  our  Hebrew  Old  Testament,  neither  more  nor 
less.  I  know  from  Christian  writers  of  the  second 
century  and  of  the  third  century,  who  made  it  a  specialty 
in  Palestine  itself  to  ascertain  what  were  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  Christ,  and  who  de- 
finitely stated  the  result  to  be  our  Old  Testament.  Now 
I  am  not  pinning  my  faith  to  the  Jews  and  saying  that 
these  books  were  divine  because  the  Jews  thought  so. 
I  am  trying  to  ascertain  what  books  they  were  which 
Jesus  and  the  Apostles  declared  to  be  divine,  and  I  learn 
beyond  a  doubt  that  the  Jews  who  heard  them  under- 
stood, without  fail  and  without  exception,  that  it  meant  pre- 
cisely what  we  call  the  Old  Testament.  That  is  a  clear 


158  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES. 

statement  of  the  matter,  which  cannot  be  gainsaid  and 
which  leaves  no  occasion  for  doubt.  A  man  may  say, 
"  Well,  I  find  a  good  many  things  in  the  Old  Testament 
that  I  don't  see  any  use  in,  that  I  don't  see  the  good  of, 
some  things  that  I  object  to."  But  hold  !  The  founder 
of  Christianity  and  his  inspired  Apostles  have  spoken 
about  them,  and  whether  you  understand  everything  in 
the  Old  Testament  or  not,  they  have  declared  that  the 
Scripture  cannot  be  broken  ;  that  all  Scripture  is  given 
by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable ;  that  the  holy 
Scriptures  (the  Old  Testament)  are  "  able  to  make  wise 
unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  wisdom  in  this  world.  It  is 
wonderful  that  mankind,  considering  how  foolish  they 
are,  should  be  so  wise ;  and  oh  !  it  is  wonderful  that 
mankind,  considering  how  wise  they  are,  should  be  so 
foolish.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  wisdom  in  the  world  ; 
wisdom  that  commands  the  admiration  of  all  who  are 
fitted  to  appreciate  it.  Men  are  so  wise  about  their 
business  affairs !  Just  look  at  the  great  business 
schemes,  the  grand  business  combinations  !  How  easily 
men  discern  the  new  openings  for  business  which  new 
inventions  and  discoveries  offer  to  them  !  How  clearly 
we  ordinary  people  see,  after  a  while,  what  some  extra- 
ordinary man  saw  years  before,  and  seized  upon  it  and 
made  himself  one  of  the  great  business  men  of  the  time 
by  his  wisdom  !  I  was  reading,  only  yesterday,  the  life 
of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  embracing  something  of  the 
life  of  the  first  great  English  Rothschild,  and  was  re- 
minded how  wise  those  men  were  in  understanding 
their  times  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  during  the 


THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES.  159 

Napoleonic  wars,  in  seeing  deeper  into  the  probabilities 
than  even  great  statesmen  saw.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
wisdom  in  the  world  ;  and  this  makes  it  all  the  sadder 
to  think  how  few,  comparatively,  seem  to  be  wise  unto 
salvation.  Nay,  these  wonderful  human  endowments 
and  energies  of  ours  seem  often  to  be  directed 
toward  wisdom  unto  sin.  Men  take  their  splendid 
powers  and  prostitute  them  in  the  service  of  wickedness. 
The  longing  to  know  evil  is  so  intense  in  human  na- 
ture !  What  is  that  early  story  in  the  dim  light  of  the 
first  history  of  mankind  ?  We  do  not  know  much 
about  it.  We  can  ask  a  thousand  questions  about  it 
that  no  one  can  answer.  But  this  much  we  see  clearly  : 
A  fair  woman  in  a  beautiful  garden,  gazing  upon  a  tree 
and  its  fruit,  and  the  thought  suggested  that  it  is  a  tree 
to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise ;  eat  of  that,  and  they 
will  be  independent  of  God,  they  will  be  themselves  as 
God,  knowing  good  and  evil  for  themselves — good  and 
evil — and  not  having  to  ask  Him  for  guidance.  She 
takes  and  eats,  and  gives  to  her  husband,  and  he  eats — 
in  flat,  bold  defiance  of  the  great  Father's  prohibition. 
Then  their  eyes  were  opened — opened  unto  sin,  opened 
unto  shame.  And  ever  since— why,  it  is  just  wonderful  to 
watch  your  own  children  and  see  how  early  they  show  a 
keen  relish  for  knowing  about  wrong  things  ;  how  they 
will  get  off  with  some  villainous  servant  or  off  with 
some  bad  schoolmate,  and  get  themselves  told  a  lot  of 
things  that  it  would  be  so  much  better  for  them  never 
to  hear  of.  They  do  so  want  to  know  the  bad  things ! 
The  groM'ing  boys  are  so  curious  about  places  that  are 
characteristically  places  of  evil.  Wise  unto  sin  !  There 


160  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES. 

are  a  great  many  thiugs  it  is  better  never '  to  know. 
There  are  things  about  which  ignorance  is  bliss  ;  yea, 
and  ignorance  is  wisdom.  There  are  things  of  which 
those  who  know  least  are  the  wisest  people,  and  those 
who  know  most  are  the  most  foolish  people.  It  is  a 
matter  to  be  thankful  for,  and  in  a  good  sense  proud  of, 
if  a  man  can  say,  that  as  to  the  popular  forms  of  out- 
breaking vice  he  never  knew  anything  about  them  ; 
that  he  never  entered  a  place  of  debauchery ;  that  he 
does  not  know  the  names  of  the  instruments  of  gaming ; 
that  he  does  not  know  the  taste  of  intoxicating  liquors. 
Happy  the  man  who  can  humbly  declare  to  a  friend 
such  blessed  ignorance,  such  wise  ignorance  as  that. 

While  men  are  so  busy  in  being  wise  unto  sin,  how 
desirable,  surely,  that  we  should  be  wise  unto  salvation ! 
My  friends,  let  us  wake  up  a  little.  We  sleep,  we 
dream  along  through  life.  We  say,  "  O  yes,  yes,  I  be- 
lieve that  there  is  another  life,  a  future."  You  believe 
it  is  eternal  ?  u  Yes,  I  believe  it  is  an  eternal  life." 
And  you  believe  in  God  ?  "  Yes,  I  believe  in  God." 
And  you  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  ?  "  Well,  yes  ;  I  sup- 
pose that  is  all  so."  And  yet,  living  in  this  brief,  fleeting, 
uncertain  life,  in  this  strange  world,  and  admitting  all 
these  things  to  be  true,  and  not  wise  unto  salvation,  and 
not  praying  to  be  wise  unto  salvation ! 

"  The  holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to  make  thee 
wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus."  That  is  the  way  in  which  they  do  it — through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus :  for  the  holy  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  never  half  understood  except 
as  they  are  seen  in  the  light  of  Christ  Jesus.  They  all 


THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES.  161 

pointed  forward  to  Christ  Jesus ;  they  all  found  their 
fulfillment,  the  key  of  their  interpretation,  in  Christ 
Jesus.  The  Old  Testament  history  is  not  merely  a  his- 
tory of  some  wandering  patriarchs  and  of  a  strange, 
wayward  people  of  wonderful  powers  and  wonderful 
propensities  to  evil.  It  is  not  merely  a  history  of  Israel. 
The  Old  Testament  is  a  history  of  redemption/of  God's 
mightiness  and  mercies,  and  of  a  chosen  nation,  all 
along  toward  the  promised,  long-looked-for  time  when 
God's  Son  should  come  to  be  the  Saviour  of  mankind. 
We  cannot  understand  the  Old  Testament,  except  we 
read  it  in  its  bearing  upon  Christ,  as  fulfilled  in  him. 
I  remember  once  a  neighboring  professor  sent  us  invi- 
tations to  his  house  for  a  summer  evening,  saying  that 
he  had  a  century  plant  which  seemed  about  to  bloom, 
and  asking  us  to  come  and  watch  with  them  till  it  blos- 
somed. It  was  a  delightful  occasion,  you  may  fancy. 
With  music  and  conversation  we  passed  on  through  the 
pleasant  summer  evening  hours,  on  till  past  midnight. 
Then  we  gathered  around  and  gazed  upon  the  plain, 
wonderful  thing  that  had  lived  longer  than  any  of  us 
had  lived,  and  now,  for  the  first  time,  was  about  to 
blossom  for  the  admiration  of  beholders.  And  oh  !  I 
think  sometimes  that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  blossoming 
Century  Plant,  the  beauteous  Millennium  Flower.  All 
the  long  story  of  Israel  meant  him ;  and  if  you  do  find 
many  things  in  the  Old  Testament  that  you  do  not  see 
the  meaning  of,  remember  that  they  all  pointed  forward 
toward  him. 

Then,  besides,  the  Scriptures  not  only  have  to  be  un- 
derstood through  him,  but  they  make  us  wise  unto  sal- 
11 


162  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES. 

vation  only  through  faith  in  him  ;  because  if  we  do  not 
believe  what  the  Scriptures  say  concerning  him,  how 
can  they  have  their  full  power  over  us  ?  They  have  a 
certain  power.  Just  as  the  moon,  when  it  is  eclipsed,  yet 
has  some  light  shining  upon  it,  reflected  from  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  earth,  so  the  people,  who  do  not  themselves 
believe  in  the  Scriptures,  and  do  not  believe  in  Christ 
Jesus  with  liring  faith,  get  much  benefit  reflected  from 
the  Christian  people  around  them,  and  the  Christian 
homes  in  which  they  grew  up,  and  the  Christian  atmos- 
phere they  breathe  ;  but  they  never  get  the  full  benefit 
which  the  Bible  is  able  to  give,  except  through  personal 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  Ah  !  that  dark  lie  in  the  garden 
would  never  have  brought  its  baneful  results  for  our 
race  of  mortals,  if  our  first  mother  had  not  believed  it. 
A  lie  rejected  is  powerless ;  a  lie  believed  is  ruin.  And 
so  truth  rejected  cannot  have  its  full  effect  upon  us. 
How  can  we  get  the  benefit  of  Scripture  if  we  do  not 
believe  in  Him  who  is  the  centre  and  the  heart  and  the 
essence  and  the  life  of  Scripture,  even  Christ  Jesus  ? 

There  is  another  line  of  thought  here :  "  And  that 
from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  holy  Scriptures,  which 
are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus."  Happy  Timothy !  His 
mother  and  his  grandmother  had  shown  an  unfeigned 
faith,  to  which  the  Apostle  himself  testified.  From  a 
child  they  had  trained  him  to  know  the  holy  Scriptures ; 
and  in  his  early  youth  he  had  met  the  blessed  Apostle 
and  learned  from  him  the  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,  and  thus  had  become  wise  unto  salvation.  Happy 
Timothy  !  Happy,  every  growing  child  that  has  devout 


THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES.  163 

people  around  to  point  it  toward  the  knowledge  of  God's 
Word.  My  friends,  we  who  are  growing  old,  what  do 
we  live  for  in  this  world,  but  for  the  young  who  are 
growing  up  around  us  ?  What  would  be  the  use  of  life 
to  us,  if  it  were  not  in  the  hope  of  making  the  life  of 
those  whom  God  hath  given  us,  and  those  who  spring 
up  under  our  view,  brighter  and  better  and  purer,  and 
worthier  ?  We  ought  not  to  think  it  a  small  matter  to 
train  the  growing  children — in  our  homes,  in  the  Sun- 
day-school, as  we  meet  them  in  society,  wherever  we  can 
reach  them  by  our  influence — to  know  the  holy  Scrip- 
tures. You  are  not  doing  enough  if  you  merely  tell 
your  children  sometimes,  "  You  ought  to  read  the  Bible," 
and  perhaps  scold  a  little  because  the  child  does  not  read 
the  Bible ;  that  is  not  half  enough.  Ah  !  we  ought  to 
set  the  child  an  example  of  reading  the  Bible,  as  some 
of  us  neglect  to  do.  We  ought  to  make  the  children  see, 
by  our  own  daily  assiduity,  our  own  living  interest,  that 
we  believe  in  reading  the  Bible  and  get  good  out  of  it. 
We  ought  to  talk  about  what  is  in  the  Bible ;  we  ought 
to  point  out  to  the  child  this  or  the  other-  portion  that 
is  suited  to  his  age  and  character  and  wants.  We  ought 
to  talk  to  the  child  about  what  he  is  reading,  to  show 
him  the  application  of  this  or  that  text  to  his  daily  life. 
Out  of  the  abundance  of  a  heart  that  is  full  of  the  know- 
ledge of  God's  Word,  our  mouth  ought  to  speak  often  in 
the  conversation  of  the  family,  so  as  to  make  the  child 
feel  that  the  Bible  has  gone  into  our  soul,  and  that  it 
shows  itself  in  the  glance  of  our  eye  and  in  the  tone  of 
our  voice  and  in  the  tenor  of  our  life.  Are  there  many 
of  us  that  do  that  ?  Dear  children  !  there  come  times 


164  THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES. 

when  our  hearts  grow  soft  and  tender  toward  them,  and 
we  feel  that  we  could  die  for  them  if  that  would  do  them 
any  good  ;  and  yet  here  is  something  by  which  we  could 
promote  their  highest,  noblest,  eternal  welfare,  and — we 
do  not  have  the  time !  Happy  Timothy,  who,  ere  he 
became  grown,  learned  the  faith  which  is  in  Christ' 
Jesus.  Happy  every  one  who  from  a  child  has  known 
the  holy  Scriptures,  has  learned  early — and  God  be 
thanked  !  the  earlier  the  better — to  give  the  young  heart 
lo  Christ  Jesus  and  dedicate  the  young  life  to  His  blessed 
jervice,  and  now  is  going  on,  trying  to  persuade  others 
k)  love  and  serve  Him  too. 

But  ah  !  there  are  many  who  from  a  child  have 
known  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  now  are  passing  on  in- 
to mature  life,  wise  about  a  great  many  earthly  things ; 
and  some  of  them  are  gray-headed  and  wrinkled,  and 
some  of  them  tottering  towards  the  end — not  yet,  oh,  not 
yet  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  !  There  are  many  peculiar  circumstances  about 
growing  old  :  the  parents  gone,  long  ago ;  maybe  the 
brothers  and  sisters  all  gone,  and  one  stands  alone,  like 
some  pine  smitten  of  the  lightning  in  the  field — alone  of 
what  was  once  the  family  circle;  and  the  friends  of 
youth  most  of  them  gone,  alas  !  and  some  of  them  es- 
tranged, and  others  so  far  away  ;  new  things  growing  up, 
like  the  bushes  growing  around  an  old  pine  tree,  that 
are  not  akin  to  it ;  new  features,  new  interests,  new  pur- 
suits ;  and  he  who  grows  old  finds  it  hard  to  interest 
himself  in  these  things  and  feel  the  spring  and  buoy- 
ancy and  the  sweetness  of  life  as  he  felt  it  in  other  days. 
Alas  for  a  man  who  from  a  child  has  known  the  holy 


THE   HOLY   SCRIPTURES.  165 

Scriptures,  and  now  is  growing  old,  and  has  not  become 
wise  unto  salvation  !  Alas  for  a  man  who  can  bear,  like 
Atlas,  the  burdens  of  the  world's  affairs  in  the  maturity 
of  his  strength  and  his  wisdom,  and  who  is  neglecting 
to  be  wise  unto  salvation  !  Ah  !  if  I  speak  to  any  one 
such  person  in  middle  life,  or  growing  old,  might  I 
persuade  him  to  say  this  day,  out  of  an  honest  and 
humble  heart,  "  O  Jesus,  of  whom  my  mother  taught  me 
in  my  childhood,  take  me  now  to  be  Thine ! " 

And  alas  !  that  there  are  so  many,  even  in  our  own 
country,  which  delights  to  call  ilsslf  Christian,  who 
from  childhood  have  not  known  the  holy  Scriptures ; 
that  in  this,  which  is  in  some  respects  the  brightest  land 
of  earth,  and  in  some  respects  the  foremost  nation  of  earth, 
there  are  some  children  who  do  not  know  the  looks  of 
the  outside  of  a  Bible  !  They  are  growing  up  in  homes 
where  no  Bible  was  ever  seen  ;  and  there  are  plenty  of 
such  homes.  Ought  it  not  to  be  a  pleasure  to  us  to  try 
to  spread  the  Bible  among  our  fellow-men  ?  One  will 
say,  many  copies  are  destroyed  and  many  copies  are 
slighted.  Certainly :  not  every  venture  in  business 
pays.  There  has  to  be  a  head  in  the  books  of  every 
establishment  for  loss  as  well  as  for  profits.  There  are 
many  blossoms  on  the  tree  that  bring  no  fruit,  and  many 
seeds  fall  into  the  ground  that  spring  not  up  ;  but  that 
does  not  prevent  us  from  planting  nor  hinder  us  from 
gathering.  Grant  that  some  copies  will  perish,  and  many 
copies  will  be  slighted  :  yet  scatter  the  Bible,  and  many 
will  read  it,  and  not  a  few,  by  the  blessing  of  God's 
grace,  will  thereby  become  wise  unto  salvation.  It  is 
hard  sometimes  to  tell  what  is  the  greatest  privilege  of 

COLLtGL  LIBKAKV 


166  THE    HOLY    SOKIPTl-RES. 

earthly  life,  but  it  does  seem  that  just  the  greatest  priv- 
ilege of  earthly  life  is  to  give  to  some  fellow-creature  the 
blessed  Word  of  God,  and  then  to  try,  by  loving  speech 
and  living  example,  to  bring  home  to  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  those  whom  we  can  reach,  the  truths  it  con- 
tains. If  we  do  love  the  Bible  ourselves  (and  many 
of  us  do),  then  ought  not  such  to  delight  in  scattering 
the  Bible  among  others  ?  If  some  of  us  know  too  well 
that  we  are  but  poor  sticks  of  Christians  at  best,  and  that 
we  do  not  love  the  Bible  as  we  ought,  and  do  not  live 
by  it  as  we  ought,  yet  shall  we  not  at  least  feel,  "  Now 
here  is  something  that  I  can  do;  here  is  something  that 
I  will  do.  I  do  not  treat  the  Bible  rightly  myself,  but 
I  will  gladly  give  the  Bible  to  every  one,  high  and  low, 
rich  and  poor,  in  all  the  land,  in  all  the  world,  whom 
I  can  help."  O  that  it  may  be  true  of  your  children 
and  mine,  of  your  acquaintance  and  mine,  that  we  have 
done  them  some  good  in  bringing  them  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  that  they  have  all  been 
brought,  by  God's  grace,  to  the  blessedness  of  being 
wise  unto  salvation. 


XII. 
ON  READING  THE  BIBLE  BY  BOOKS  * 

rPHE  main  support  of  all  individual  Christian  life,  the 
-*-  main-spring  of  all  high  Christian  work,  must  be  the 
truth  of  God.  Truth  is  the  life-blood  of  piety.  Truth 
is  always  more  potent  and  more  precious  when  we  draw 
it  ourselves  out  of  the  Bible.  I  rode  out  yesterday 
afternoon  with  a  kind  friend  among  the  glories  of  the 
famous  avenue  of  Cleveland,  and  then  away  into  the 
beautiful  country  region  which  they  hope  is  to  be  Cleve- 
land Park  some  day,  until  we  passed  presently  a  little 
fountain  where  the  water,  coming  fresh  and  sweet  and 
bright,  was  bursting  from  the  hillside.  The  water  we 
drink  in  the  houses  here  from  the  lake  is  delightful,  but 
there  it  was  a  fountain.  There  is  nothing  like  drinking 
water  out  of  a  fountain.  And  I  remembered  what  my 
Lord  Bacon  has  said  :  "  Truth  from  any  other  source  is 
like  water  from  a  cistern ;  but  truth  drawn  out  of  the 
Bible  is  like  drinking  water  from  a  fountain,  immedi- 
ately where  it  springeth."  Ah,  this  Christian  work  we 
have  to-day  in  the  world  will  be  wise  and  strong  and 
mighty  just  in  proportion,  other  things  being  equal,  as 

*  Address  before  the  International  Convention  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  May  25,  1881.  This  maybe 
had  (with  some  additional  analyses  of  books)  in  tract  form  from  the 
International  Committee,  Twenty-third  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York  City. 

167 


1(58  ON     IJKADINC    TIIH    15IHLK    BY    HOOKS. 

it  is  directed  and  controlled  and  inspired  by  what  we 
draw  ourselves  out  of  the  Word  of  God  !  I  have  come 
to  speak  to  people  who  want  to  study  the  BibJe,  who  do 
study  the  Bible,  who  love  the  Bible,  and  would  fain 
love  it  more  and  know  it  better.  I  am  not  to  speak  to 
Biblical  scholars,  though  such  are  present,  no  doubt ;  I 
am  not  to  speak  to  persons  of  great  leisure,  who  can 
spend  hours  every  day  over  their  Bible ;  but  to  busy 
workers,  most  of  them  busy  with  the  ordinary  pursuits 
of  human  life,  in  their  homes  or  places  of  business,  and 
all  of  them  busy,  I  have  no  doubt,  in  the  varied  work 
of  Christian  people  in  the  world,  and  they  wish  to  know 
how  busy  people,  often  interrupted  in  their  daily  read- 
ing of  the  Bible,  and  often  limited  for  time,  can  make 
the  most  of  this  daily  reading.  Therefore,  they  will  be 
willing,  perhaps,  to  listen. 

I  am  to  undertake,  by  request,  to  set  forth  one  of  the 
many  ways  of  reading  the  Bible,  which  I  think  may 
have  special  advantages,  which  is  often  too  much 
neglected,  and  which  may  contribute  to  give  us  in- 
tellectual interest  in  the  Bible,  and  to  make  its  study 
spiritually  profitable.  I  want  your  kind  aid  in  doing 
this,  my  friends.  I  am  going  to  speak  of  an  intensely 
practical  matter  in  as  thoroughly  practical  a  manner  as  I 
know  how,  and  when  I  am  done,  I  shall  be  exceedingly 
glad  if  one  and  another  of  you  will  ask  me  questions 
about  the  subject,  or  about  anything  that  has  been  said. 

The  Bible  is  one  book  ;  but  the  Bible  is  many  books. 
It  is  an  interesting  subject  of  reflection  to  look  back 
upon  the  process  by  which  men  ceased  calling  it  books 
and  began  to  think  of  it  as  a  book.  You  know  that 


ON  BEADING  THE  BIBLE  BY  BOOKS. 

the  Greek  name  for  Bible,  Ta  Hagia  Biblia,  means  the 
sacred  books ;  and  when  they  borrowed  the  Greek  term 
into  the  Latin  Biblia  Sacra,  it  was  still  plural — the 
Sacred  Books.  How  has  that  Biblia  come  to  be  a  singu- 
lar word  in  our  language  ?  When  the  various  writings 
of  inspired  men  had  all  been  completed  and  began  to 
be  thought  of  as  one  collection,  complete  in  itself,  and  when 
men  began  to  know  that  singular  and  beautiful  harmony 
which  pervades  so  wonderfully  all  this  great  collection 
of  books,  written  by  so  many  men,  through  so  many 
long  centuries,  perceiving  that  it  was  not  only  a  com- 
plete collection  of  books,  but  that  they  were  all  in  per- 
fect harmony  with  each  other,  then  the  idea  grew  upon 
the  Christian  mind  that  this  was  really  one  book.  A 
very  noble  thought  that  is,  to  be  cherished  and  made 
plain  to  each  successive  generation — the  internal  har- 
mony of  all  these  various  writings  of  inspired  men. 

But  then  we  must  not  forget  that,  after  all,  it  is  many 
books.  They  were  written  separately  ;  they  were  most 
of  them  published  separately  ;  they  were  originally  read 
separately  from  each  other  ;  they  had  a  separate  charac- 
ter, a  substantially  separate  meaning  and  value,  a  prac- 
tical influence  over  those  who  read  them,  and  they  ought 
to  behead  as  separate  books. 

Then  each  one  of  them  must  be  read  as  a  whole  if  we 
would  understand  them  well.  You  cannot  understand 
any  book  if  you  read  it  only  by  fragments — I  mean  the 
first  time  you  read  it.  A  cultivated  gentleman  of  this 
city  remarked  at  dinner  to-day  that  he  was  reading  for 
the  third  time  that  beautiful  book  of  piety,  "  The 
Memorials  of  a  Quiet  Life," — reading  it  for  the  third 


170  ON    READING    THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

time,  fifteen  minutes  of  every  day,  he  said.  That  is  very 
well  when  he  is  reading  it  for  the  third  time ;  but  if  he 
had  read  it  fifteen  minutes  of  every  day  the  first  time, 
he  could  not  have  entered  so  fully  into  the  meaning  of 
the  book.  The  celebrated  John  Locke  has  a  saying  on 
this  subject  in  the  preface  to  his  commentary  on  the 
Epistles  of  Paul.  He  said  he  had  found  from  his  ex- 
perience that  in  order  to  understand  one  of  the  Epistles 
of  Paul,  it  will  not  do  to  take  it  in  fragments.  Why, 
suppose  (the  philosopher  goes  en)  that  a  man  has  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  an  absent  friend,  whom  he  loves 
very  much — a  letter  full  of  valuable  instruction  to  him, 
and  that  he  reads  a  page  to-day  and  then  lays  it  down ; 
the  next  day  he,  takes  another  page  and  begins  at  the 
beginning  of  the  second  page,  and  does  not  notice  much 
what  was  at  the  end  of  the  first  page  ;  the  third  day  he 
begins  at  the  top  of  the  third  page  and  reads  that.  How 
much  will  he  know  about  the  letter  when  he  is  done.  He 
tells  you,  perhaps,  "  I  have  been  reading  a  letter  from  So- 
and-so — a  letter  full  of  valuable  instruction,"  and  you  ask 
him  what  it  is  about ;  he  does  not  quite  know  what  it  is 
about,  and  no  wonder,  with  such  a  process  of  reading. 
You  must  take  the  Epistles,  says  Locke,  as  you  would 
take  any  other  letter.  You  must  take  them  each  as  a 
whole,  and  sit  down  and  read  each  from  beginning  to 
end,  and  see  what  it  is  about.  And  then,  if  it  is  very 
valuable,  you  will  take  it  afterwards  in  parts,  not  neces- 
sarily in  pages,  but  in  parts  according  to  the  subject  of 
which  it  treats,  and  you  will  see  what  it  says  about  this 
subject,  and  what  it  says  about  that  subject,  etc.  That 
seems  to  be  very  plain  common  sense,  and  yet  what  a 


ON    READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  171 

pity  that  the  idea  has  not  struck  more  widely  into  the 
minds  of  the  Christian  world  ! 

Will  you  pardon  a  little  personal  reminiscence?  I 
think  that  those  who  grow  old  ought  to  take  occasion  to 
bear  their  humble  personal  testimony  to  the  way  in 
which  good  is  sometimes  done  for  and  through  young 
men.  It  is  a  long  time  ago  now — I  am  almost  afraid 
to  tell  you  how  long  ago — that  I  was  a  college  student 
at  the  University  of  Virginia.  One  day,  coming  home 
from  a  lecture,  Dr.  McGuffey,  Professor  of  Moral  Phil- 
osophy, speaking  to  a  student  who  was  contemplating 
the  ministry,  said,  "  I  want  you  to  get  Home's  Intro- 
duction, and  hunt  up  a  paragraph  quoted  there  from 
John  Locke  about  the  importance  of  reading  the  Bible, 
a  book  at  a  time,  taking  each  book  as  a  whole.  Now, 
be  sure  to  get  it,  and  read  it."  The  young  man  got  it, 
and  read  it,  and  the  thought  went  into  his  heart  of 
reading  the  Bible  in  that  way,  and  took  hold  upon  him  ; 
and  in  order  to  show  the  impression  that  was  made,  he 
must  mention  as  result  that  a  few  years  later,  by  a  series 
of  Sunday  night  sermons  on  the  life  and  writings  of 
the  Apostle  Paul,  before  Conybeare  and  Howson  were 
heard  of  in  the  world,  treating  each  epistle  as  a  whole, 
in  the  place  where  it  occurred  in  the  history,  he  crowded 
the  aisles  and  crowded  the  doors  of  the  church  and 
built  a  new  church ;  and  a  few  years  later  still,  another 
result  was  that  the  young  man  was  drawn  very  reluc- 
tantly from  the  pastoral  work  he  loved,  and  will  always 
love  better  than  anything  else  in  this  world,  to  be  a 
teacher  of  others  in  this  same  work  ;  and  the  man  can- 
not tell  to-day,  as  he  looks  back,  how  much  of  the  direc- 


172  ON    READING   THE    BIBLE   BY    BOOKS. 

tion  his  life  has  taken  is  due  to  the  recommendation  the 
professor  gave  to  his  student,  as  they  walked  home  from 
the  lecture. 

Oh,  ye  people  that  have  to  do  with  the  world's  young 
men,  you  never  know  what  some  little  word  you  speak 
is  going  to  do  in  shaping  the  whole  character  and  con- 
trolling the  whole  life  of  the  man  who  walks  by  your 
side ! 

But  I  wish  not  to  argue  this  matter,  but  to  offer  some 
practical  illustrations  of  it.  Let  us  just  take  up  together, 
now,  some  books  of  the  Bible,  and  by  your  very  kind 
permission,  I  will  address  myself  to  the  average  reader, 
the  person  of  average  intelligence. 

Take  the  First  Book  of  Samuel.  You  want  to  read 
that  book  through  at  a  sitting.  How  long  will  it  take 
you  ?  Forty-five  or  fifty  minutes.  Read  it  as  you 
would  read  a  Sunday-school  book  that  one  of  your  chil- 
dren brought  home  from  Sunday-school,  right  straight 
through  before  you  rise.  Say  to  yourself,  "  What  is 
this  book  about?"  You  find  it  is  about  Samuel,  and 
presently  it  passes  on  to  tell  about  Saul.  Samuel  con- 
tinues to  be  his  contemporary.  After  awhile  young 
David  comes  into  the  history,  and  it  goes  on  so  till 
Samuel  passes  away  and  you  reach  the  death  of  Saul 
with  the  end  of  the  book.  So  that  book  has  treated 
about  Samuel,  Saul  and  David,  and  you  have  got 
some  idea  of  the  general  history  of  each  of  these  persons, 
up  to  the  death  of  Saul,  and  the  time  when  you  know 
that  David  succeeded  him.  Then  you  go  to  reading  it 
again,  the  next  day  we  will  suppose,  for  you  are  a  busy 
person.  You  take  the  book  the  next  day,  begin  at  the 


OX   READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  173 

beginning  and  say,  "  Well  now,  the  first  part  of  this 
book  is  about  Samuel.  Let  me  look  over  it  here,  and  see 
into  what  portions  of  Samuel's  life  it  divides  itself."  You 
see  pretty  soon  that  you  have  first  an  account  of  Samuel's 
birth  and  childhood  ;  secondly,  you  have  an  account  of 
Samuel's  active  life  as  ruler  of  Israel ;  and  then,  thirdly, 
you  have  an  account  of  Samuel's  old  age,  when  he  had 
anointed  Saul  as  King  of  Israel,  and  lived  on  as  Saul's 
prophet,  and  finally  came  in  contact  with  the  youth  of  Da- 
vid. Those  are  the  three  periods  of  Samuel's  history 
presented — his  youth,  his  active  life  as  ruler,  and  his 
old  age  as  a  prophet.  You  take  up  the  account  of 
his  youth,  and  you  purpose  to  read  as  much  as  you 
can  of  that  for  this  first  reading.  Now  the  best  way 
would  be  to  read  the  book  three  times,  if  you  are 
patient  enough.  I  know  this  is  a  terribly  impatient 
age,  and  I  am  afraid  you  will  not  do  that.  I  am 
afraid  you  will  wish  to  make  only  two  readings  of  the 
book,  and  we  will  suppose  that  you  adopt  that  course, 
although  the  other  is  better.  While  you  are  reading 
this  life  of  Samuel,  then,  in  its  several  portions, 
you  will  be  studying  Samuel's  character  as  a  prophet, 
a  ruler  and  a  good  man.  You  will  be  paying  some 
attention  to  Samuel's  mission  and  office  in  the  unfold- 
ing of  the  history  of  the  people  of  Israel ;  for  he  oc- 
cupies a  very  unique  and  interesting  position.  You 
will  at  the  same  time  be  attending,  paragraph  by  para- 
graph, without  bothering  yourself  much  about  chapters, 
to  the  practical  lessons  which  are  presented  to  you. 
"  What  is  there  here  for  me  to  imitate  ?  What  is  there 
here  for  me  to  learn  ?  What  is  there  in  this  trait  of 


174  ON   READING   THE   BIBLE   BY    BOOKS. 

Samuel's  character,  what  in  this  experience  of  Samuel's 
life,  that  I  ought  especially  to  lay  to  heart  ?  "  You  are 
now  getting  the  lessons  out  of  one  portion  of  the  life, 
but  with  a  reference  to  the  other  portion,  taking  it  all 
as  a  whole.  When  you  have  completed  the  life  of 
Samuel  in  that  way,  you  pass  to  the  life  of  Saul.  You 
find  you  have  Saul's  early  years  and  Saul's  later  history 
as  a  division  into  two  parts.  Perhaps  you  mark  down 
on  a  bit  of  paper  with  a  pencil,  or  you  mark  down  on 
the  fly-leaf  of  your  Bible  itself,  the  divisions  in  this 
way.  Then  you  take  one  after  another  and  study  them. 
And  so  with  the  history  of  David  as  it  comes  in  ;  the 
struggles  of  David's  early  years ;  then  passing  as  you 
would  have  to  do  into  the  other  book,  Second  Samuel, 
the  history  of  David's  prosperity  in  middle  life,  and 
finally,  the  history  of  his  sore  adversities  in  his  later 
years.  You  will  thus  see  how  the  struggles  of  his  early 
years  prepared  him  for  his  day  of  prosperity,  and  how 
the  sins  of  his  day  of  prosperity  brought  on  his  adversity 
and  bitter  sorrow,  and  you  begin  to  take  David's  life  as 
a  whole,  and  see  the  connection  of  the  different  parts  of 
it — see  how  the  different  traits  of  character,  good  and 
evil,  come  out  one  after  another,  and  apply  each,  one 
after  the  other,  to  yourself.  Now,  I  suppose  that  this 
would  be  a  much  wiser  way  of  reading  the  First  Book  of 
Samuel,  than  just  to  read  one  or  two  chapters  to-day, 
and  the  next  day  begin  to  read  at  the  next  chapter,  and 
not  stop  to  see  what  there  is  in  the  former,  which  is  the 
way  (present  company,  of  course,  excepted ! )  a  great 
many  people  read  their  Bible. 

But  let  us  turn  to  another  kind  of  book.     Take  one 


ON   EEADING   THE   BIBLE   BY    BOOKS.  175 

of  the  Epistles  of  Paul.  You  will  find  that  the  books 
of  the  Bible  must  be  treated,  for  our  purpose,  in  a  great 
variety  of  ways,  according  to  their  peculiar  character. 
Take,  now,  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  We 
will  suppose  that  you  sit  down  and  read  it  straight 
through,  and  just  let  the  chapters  go.  What  are  the 
chapters,  and  who  was  the  chapter-maker?  Not  the 
inspired  writer,  as  everybody  knows.  Chapters  and 
verses  are  convenient  enough,  provided  we  use  them  as 
servants  and  do  not  allow  them  to  be  masters.  You  read 
it  straight  through  and  see  what  it  is  all  about,  and  you 
will  find  as  you  read  that  Epistle  that  it  treats  of  a  num- 
ber of  entirely  distinct  subjects.  They  have  nothing  to 
do  with  each  other  so  far  as  you  can  see.  You  take  your 
pencil  and  mark  them  down  as  you  go  along.  You  find 
there  are  four  chapters — for  the  chapter-maker  made 
but  one  grave  mistake  in  that  epistle,  which  is  saying  a 
good  deal  to  his  credit,  more  than  can  be  said  in  other 
places — there  are  four  chapters  which  treat  of  the  divi- 
sions among  the  Corinthians,  and  the  fact  that  they  made 
these  divisions  with  reference  to  the  several  preachers. 
This  leads  Paul  to  speak  of  his  own  way  of  preaching. 
He  would  not  accommodate  himself  to  their  notions  of 
preaching,  a  lesson  which  preachers  sometimes  have  to  re- 
member in  this  cranky  world.  Then  you  find  two  chapters 
in  which  he  speaks  of  special  evils  that  existed  among  them 
— evils  of  licentiousness,  and  evils  of  getting  their  per- 
sonal difficulties  settled  by  heathen  judges,  instead  of 
getting  them  settled  by  their  own  brethren  for  the  hon- 
or of  Christianity.  He  said,  in  the  first  place,  that  they 
ought  not  to  have  personal  difficulties  to  settle,  and,  in 


176  ON   READING   THE   BIBLE    BY    BOOKS. 

the  next  place,  if  they  had  them,  they  ought  to  get  them  set- 
tled by  their  own  brethren  and  not  go  to  the  heathen  for  it. 
Then  you  find  the  seventh  chapter  treats  of  questions 
pertaining  to  marriage,  about  which  they  had  written  in- 
quiring of  the  apostle.  Then  you  go  on  and  you  will 
see  that  chapter  8,  9  and  10  talk  about  the  question  of 
eating  meat  which  had  been  offered  to  idols.  That  was 
a  grave  practical  question  among  them,  far  graver  than 
many  questions  that  we  dispute  about  now-a-days,  though 
to  us  it  is  dead  and  gone,  just  as  many  of  our  questions 
of  dispute  will  be  dead  and  gone  in  the  coming  centu- 
ries, and  men  will  wonder  what  in  the  world  made  those 
good  people  of  the  nineteenth  century  spend  so  much  time 
over  matters  that  will  seem  to  them  of  no  consequence 
whatever.  Those  three  chapters  treat  of  the  eating  of 
meat  offered  to  idols,  and  in  connection  with  that  the 
apostle  indicates  the  right  course  by  the  course  that  he 
pursued.  By  the  way,  let  me  mention  what  his  argu- 
ment is  there.  It  is  familiar  to  most  of  you.  He 
says:  "Now  grant  that  this  meat  offered  to  idols  is  not 
different  from  any  other  meat.  The  idols  are  nothing,  and 
the  meat  is  just  the  same  as  it  was  before  it  was  laid  on 
the  altar.  Yet  if  your  weak  brother  cannot  get  overthe 
old  idolatrous  associations,  cannot  eat  it  without  a  re- 
vival of  the  old  reverence  for  the  idol,  and  without  its 
carrying  him  back  to  sin,  oh !  had  you  not  better  let  it 
alone,  even  if  it  is  innocent  for  you,  for  the  sake  of  your 
brother?"  And  I  think  sometimes,  Oh!  that  we  could 
content  ourselves  with  that  principle  in  regard  to  some 
practical  questions  of  to-day — that  argument  which  our 
fathers  employed  about  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks, 


ON    READING   THE   BIBLE    BY    BOOKS.  177 

for  instance ;  grant  that  it  may  be  innocent  for  you,  yet 
if  it  leads  your  brother  into  sin,  cannot  you  let  it  alone 
for  your  brother's  sake?  "Then  besides,"  the  apostle 
says,  "you  had  better  not  be  too  sure  that  this  thing  is 
innocent  for  you,  for,  before  you  know  it,  it  may  get  you 
into  trouble  too."  That  is  what  I  should  call  "A  calm 
view  of  Temperance."  But  this  by  the  way. 

Then,  to  proceed  with  the  Epistle,  you  find  that  chap- 
ters 11  to  14  treat  of  abuses  that  had  arisen  at  Corinth 
in  connection  with  their  public  worship.  A  variety  of 
abuses  are  mentioned.  Most  of  them  refer  to  the  dis- 
orderly conduct  of  their  public  worship,  when  ever  so 
many  of  them  would  want  to  speak  at  once,  and  they 
would  not  sit  down  as  gracefully  as  I  saw  gentlemen  do 
this  afternoon  in  the  social  meeting.  They  would  go  on 
talking  together,  and  were  not  willing  to  give  up  to  each 
other.  Some  of  them  were  proud  that  they  had  special 
gifts,  and  others  jealous  because  they  did  not  have  the 
like,  and  the  apostle  tells  them  that  all  this  must  be 
managed  in  decency  and  in  order,  and  that  Christian  love 
is  a  far  brighter,  sweeter,  nobler  thing  than  all  the  special 
gifts.  Just  here  please  let  the  chapters  alone,  for  what  you 
call  the  13th  chapter  of  I.  Corinthians  comes  right  in 
as  a  part  of  his  teaching  about  this  matter  of  the  dis- 
playing of  gifts,  the  ambition,  the  jealousy,  etc.,  and  you 
have  no  business  reading  the  first  portion  of  that  chap- 
ter without  noticing  how  it  links  on  with  what  precedes 
at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  chapter,  and  without  noticing 
how  the  end  of  it  is  connected  with  the  chapter  that  fol- 
lows. It  blazes  like  a  diamond  on  the  bosom  of  Scrip- 
ture, but  then  it  fastens  Scripture  together. 
12 


178  ON   READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

The  fifteenth  chapter  of  I.  Corinthians  treats  of  the 
Resurrection,  and  the  sixteenth  contains  some  practical 
information,  etc. 

Now  you  have  half  a  dozen  entirely  distinct  subjects 
here.  You  have  observed  that,  and  you  have  marked 
it  down.  Then  you  take  the  subjects  up  one  at  a  time, 
and  study  them. 

You  will  find  some  other  epistles  in  which  you  cannot 
make  that  sort  of  absolute  division — this  topic,  and  then 
another  topic,  and  then  a  third  topic — but  the  writer  goes 
from  one  thing  to  another,  and  then  perhaps  comes  back  to 
the  first  subject.  Still,  in  a  good  many  of  those  cases,  you 
can  find  that  there  is  some  one  thought  that  is  the  key- 
note to  the  whole.  Take  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  for 
example.  It  is  quite  short ;  you  can  read  it  all  through 
in  less  than  half  an  hour.  You  ask  yourself,  What  is 
this  all  about?  What  is  the  main  idea  here?  for  you 
perceive  that  you  have  not  here  several  topics,  as  in  First 
Corinthians.  The  main  idea,  however,  is  Christian  joy. 
"Rejoice  in  the  Lord."  Wonderful  idea,  when  you 
remember  that  the  man  who  wrote  the  letter  to  the  Phil- 
ippians was  a  prisoner  chained,  his  life  subject  to  the 
caprice  of  the  most  terrific  tyrant  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  And  he  was  writing  to  a  church  poor  and  perse- 
cuted, which  had  sore  trials  awaiting  it  in  the  future. 
Yet,  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  Paul  writes  to  his  perse- 
cuted brethren,  and  the  key-note  of  what  he  says  is, 
"  Rejoice  in  the  Lord."  It  is  true  that,  in  the  middle 
of  the  Epistle,  he  apologizes  for  saying  it  so  often.  He 
says,  "  To  write  the  same  things  to  you,  to  me  indeed  is 
not  grievous."  He  thought  it  might  be  grievous  to  them. 


ON   BEADING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  179 

Before  he  gets  through  with  it  he  says  it  two  or  three 
times  more,  and  at  the  end  he  breaks  forth,  "Rejoice 
in  the  Lord  always,  and  again  I  say,  Rejoice  !"  Our  be- 
loved brother  Paul,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God, 
was  yet  a  man  of  like  passions  with  ourselves,  and  as 
our  Saviour  himself  showed  humanness  none  the  less 
genuine  because  so  blended  with  the  Divine  nature,  in 
the  unity  of  his  one  person,  and  that  humanness  of  his 
sweetly  draws  us  toward  the  Divine ;  so  it  is  with  the 
humanness  of  the  sacred  writings  too,  and  we  may  feel 
the  touch  of  human  thinking,  and  the  glow  of  human 
feeling,  and  not  lose  at  all  our  reverence  for  the  divinity 
that  is  in  it  all. 

What  is  the  key-note  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  ? 
It  is  the  unity  of  Christians.  The  dispute  of  many 
years  whether  the  Gentiles  should  become  Jews  is  not 
ended,  but  the  apostle  urges  that  the  Christians  are  one, 
Jew  or  Gentile.  That  was  the  widest  idea  that  ever 
existed  among  Christians  in  this  world.  None  of  our 
divisions  of  sect,  of  country  or  of  race  is  half  so  hard 
to  overcome  as  was  that  question  of  the  junction  of 
Jewish  Christian  and  Gentile  Christian,  and  the  apos- 
tle's great  thought  in  that  Epistle  is  that  all  are  one  in 
Christ  Jesus.  The  Epistle  was  intended  apparently  to 
be  sent  around  as  a  sort  of  circular  letter  to  many 
churches,  but  that  is  the  key-note.  I  do  not  say  that 
everything  in  Ephesians  is  about  unity  directly  and 
immediately,  and  if  you  get  hold  of  that  idea,  the  dan- 
ger is  that  you  will  carry  it  too  fa'r,  and  will  find  it  in 
many  places  where  it  is  not.  At  least,  if  you  do  not, 
brethren  of  the  laity,  you  will  be  wiser  than  brethren  of 
the  nimistrv  often  are. 

CULLESt  L1BHAH> 


180  ON   READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

But  you  will  find  another  kind  of  books.  We  are 
supposing  you  are  examining  for  yourself.  Of  course, 
it  will  be  very  convenient  if  you  get  some  of  the  works 
which  give  analyses  of  the  books  of  the  Bible,  and  tell 
the  topics  they  treat  of.  That  is  helpful,  especially 
helpful  in  enabling  one  at  the  outset  to  see  how  to  take 
hold  of  the  matter.  But,  oh,  it  is  so  much  better  to 
have  a  little  rude  analysis  you  have  made  yourself; 
because  that  treats  of  the  thing  the  way  it  looks  to  your 
mind,  and  you  are  able  with  that,  though  it  may  not  be 
half  so  good  as  one  you  may  find  in  the  work  of 
another,  to  get  more  of  the  sacred  thought  which  this 
book  suggests  to  your  own  mind.  In  many  of  these 
sacred  books  you  cannot  find  one  key-note,  nor  a  divi- 
sion into  separate  topics,  but  you  will  find  some  subject 
that  pervades  the  whole  and  gives  unity  to  it  in  some 
other  way. 

Let  us  take  the  great  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  Some 
people  think  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  tremendously 
hard  to  understand.  I  remember  a  time  when  I  found 
it  right  hard  to  believe.  I  used  to  say  that  certain  por- 
tions of  it  were  the  most  difficult  writing  I  knew  of  in 
any  language — that  is  the  way  young  fellows  talk,  you 
know,  and  sometimes  old  fellows  have  not  gotten  over 
it.  I  used  to  say  that  certain  portions  of  it  were  sur- 
passingly obscure.  And  why  ?  It  seems  to  me  now — 
and  I  mention  it  because  the  thought  may  be  worth  con- 
sidering— that  there  never  would  have  been  any  great 
difficulty  in  seeing  what  the  apostle  meant  to  say,  if  I 
had  only  been  willing  to  let  him  alone  and  let  him  say 
what  he  wanted  to  say.  But  I  had  my  own  notions  as 


ON   READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  181 

to  what  ought  to  be  said  on  that  subject,  and  what 
ought  not  to  be  said,  and  you  see  the  plainer  he  was  in 
saying  what  he  wanted  and  what  I  did  not  want,  the 
harder  I  found  it  to  make  him  mean  something  else. 

You  find  at  once,  as  you  read  this  Epistle  rapidly 
through,  that  it  breaks  into  two  parts.  Eleven  chapters 
contain  doctrinal  arguments  and  instruction  and  then  five 
chapters  treat  of  practical  matters  only  slightly  connected 
with  the  doctrinal  matters.  The  first  eleven  doctrinal 
chapters  treat  of  justification  by  faith,  and  the  first  three 
of  them  give  the  whole  substance  of  this  doctrine. 
They  show  that  the  Gospel  reveals  the  righteousness  of 
God,  which  is  by  faith,  and  then  they  show  why  men 
need  justification  by  faith — because  they  cannot  find 
justification  in  any  other  way — their  works  will  con- 
demn them,  and  if  they  find  it  at  all,  it  must  be  by 
faith.  This  takes  up  the  first  and  second  chapters  and  a 
part  of  the  third,  and  then  the  remainder  of  the  third 
chapter  tells  about  this  provision  which  God  has  made 
for  justification  by  faith,  and  how  beautifully  this  pro- 
vision works  to  take  all  the  pride  out  of  repentant  souls 
and  humble  them  into  receiving  the  great  salvation  that 
God  gives.  The  fourth  and  fifth  chapters  only  give  fur- 
ther illustration  of  justification  by  faith.  They  say  that 
Abraham  himself  was  really  justified  by  faith  (one 
whole  chapter  is  given  to  this),  and  that  this  matter  of 
our  being  justified  through  the  effect  of  Christ's  work 
of  salvation  is  only  paralleled  by  the  effect  of  Adam's 
sin  upon  his  posterity.  This  takes  a  great  part  of  the 
fifth  chapter.  These  are  mere  illustrations,  you  see, 
from  the  case  of  Abraham  and  from  the  effect  of  Adam's 


182  ON   READING   THE   BIBLE   BY    BOOKS. 

sin — illustrations  of  the  idea  of  our  being  justified 
through  faith  in  the  Saviour.  Then  you  come  to  chap- 
ters 6,  7  and  8.  You  find  that  they  treat  of  justification 
by  faith  from  another  point  of  view,  viz. :  In  its  bear- 
ings on  the  work  of  making  men  holy,  i.  e.,  of  sanctifi- 
cation.  Then  the  next  three  chapters  are  on  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Jews  and  Gentiles.  So  you  see  that  the 
Epistle  divides  into  different  departments  of  the  one 
topic,  and  after  you  have  read  it  through  several  times, 
and  tried  to  find  out  the  line  of  thought  in  it,  and  been 
willing  to  let  the  apostle  mean  what  he  wants  to  mean, 
whether  you  like  it  or  not,  I  think  you  will  find  that 
the  subjects  considered  are  not  so  very  difficult.  Of 
course,  there  are  questions  we  can  ask  about  them  at  once 
that  nobody  can  answer,  but  we  must  content  ourselves 
with  what  is  taught  us. 

Take  another  kind  of  book :  The  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.  There  you  find  there  is  a  line  of  argu- 
ment, and  one  set  of  practical  applications  that  runs 
through  the  whole  letter,  so  that  there  are  not  half  a 
dozen  sentences  in  the  Epistle  which  you  can  properly 
understand  without  reference  to  the  entire  thought  of  it 
as  a  whole.  You  must  have  that  before  your  mind  all 
the  time.  Now  what  is  the  practical  object  of  this 
Epistle?  Well,  after  trying  persecution  upon  the  He- 
brew Christians,  they  tried  argument,  and  persuasion  ; 
they  used  cunningly  devised  reasoning  against  Chris- 
tianity. You  can  see  it  yourself,  if  you  look  at  the 
Epistle  and  think  about  it.  They  said,  We  used  to 
think  that  your  Christianity  was  only  one  form  of  Ju- 
daism ;  but  since  you  seem  to  have  got  the  idea  of  cut- 


OX   READING  THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  183 

ting  loose  from  Judaism  and  setting  up  your  Chris- 
tianity as  a  religion  by  itself,  why,  don't  you  see  that  it 
is  no  religion,  that  it  is  entirely  inferior  to  the  religion 
of  our  fathers  ?  You  had  better  give  it  up,  and  come 
back  and  be  Jews  and  nothing  but  Jews.  The  religion 
of  our  fathers  was  given  through  the  holy  angels  at 
Mount  Sinai.  Are  you  going  to  turn  away  from  it? 
The  religion  of- our  fathers  was  given  through  the  great 
and  revered  Moses.  Are  you  going  to  abandon  Moses  ? 
The  religion  of  our  fathers  is  a  religion,  with  its  mag- 
nificent temple,  its  smoking  altars,  its  sacrifices,  its 
incense,  its  robed  priesthood,  its  splendid  ritual.  The 
religion  of  our  fathers  is  a  religion  indeed  !  And  what 
is  your  Christianity,  if  it  is  to  set  up  for  itself?  Hadn't 
you  better  abandon  Christianity  ?  And  the  sacred  writer 
replies,  Nay !  I  will  take  their  own  arguments,  and 
turn  them  all  against  them.  He  says,  "  The  religion 
of  our  fathers  was  given  through  the  angels  at  Mount 
Sinai,  but  Christianity  was  given  through  the  Son  of 
God,  and  as  the  Son  of  God  is  revealed  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament to  be  incomparably  superior  to  the  angels,  so  is 
Christianity  superior  to  Judaism.  The  religion  of  our 
fathers  was  given  through  the  great  and  revered  Moses, 
but  Moses  was  only,  as  it  is  said  in  Deuteronomy,  a 
faithful  servant  in  all  the  house,  and  the  founder  of 
Christianity  is  above  him  as  the  son  of  the  household  is 
above  the  servant.  The  religion  of  our  fathers  has  its 
outward  forms  of  worship,  but  they  are  only  the  pictures 
of  the  realities  in  the  glorious  world  beyond  those  clouds 
through  which  our  great  High  Priest  passed,  like  the 
Jewish  high  priest  through  the  vail  of  the  temple, 


184  OX    HEAPING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

where  lies  the  true  Holy  of  Holies  in  the  other  world. 
And  thither  he  has  gone,  bearing  not  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  goats,  but  his  own  precious  blood,  offered  not  every 
year,  but  once  for  all,  and  all  sufficient,  and  there  he 
stands,  not  for  a  little  time  while  they  wait  without  till 
he  appears  again,  but  there  he  ever  liveth  interceding 
for  them  that  come  to  God  through  him,  and  so  is  able 
to  save  to  the  uttermost."  Don't  you  see  that  he  takes 
every  one  of  their  own  arguments  and  turns  them  right 
against  them  to  show  the  superiority  of  Christianity  ? 
And  the  practical  bearing  of  it,  all  the  time,  is,  There- 
fore don't  abandon  Christianity  and  go  back  to  be  a 
mere  Jew  ;  don't  give  up  your  faith  in  Christianity ;  see 
the  evils  of  unbelief  and  apostasy.  As  I  said,  there  is 
hardly  a  sentence  in  the  whole  Epistle,  the  full  purport 
of  which  can  be  understood  unless  you  bear  in  mind  its 
relation  to  this  line  of  argument. 

Let  me  give  another  illustration  in  that  direction.  I 
think  in  practical  experience  one  of  the  hardest  books 
in  the  Bible  to  treat  as  a  whole,  is  the  book  of  Job.  Yet 
I  do  not  think  it  very  difficult  to  get  the  general  outline 
of  the  book  if  you  address  yourself  to  that  task,  pro- 
vided you  will  not  allow  the  beautiful  poetic  phraseology 
to  prevent  you  from  seeing  the  line  of  thought.  You 
see  that  in  the  first  place  you  have  the  prosperity  of  Job 
described,  and  then  the  sore  trials  that  were  allowed  to 
come  upon  him.  How  sore  they  were,  and  how  he  stood 
all  the  trials !  Then  you  have  his  friends  coming  to  him 
and  treating  him  better  than  people  among  us  some- 
times treat  their  friends  who  are  in  affliction.  For  they 
go  and  talk  them  half  to  death,  and  Job's  friends  sat — 


OX    READING    THE    BIBLE    BY    BOOKS.  185 

how  many  days  and  nights  was  it? — before  they  even 
spoke  a  word;  and  then  they  go  to  talking  about  him. 
The  theme  of  their  talk  is  one  of  the  greatest  subjects 
of  sorrowful  human  thought  in  all  the  ages  of  the 
world.  What  is  the  meaning  of  sore  afflictions  when 
God  lets  them  come  upon  men  ?  It  is  a  question  that 
has  not  been  answered  yet — one  of  the  questions  the  full 
answer  to  which,  if  it  ever  enters  into  finite  minds,  must 
be  reserved  for  the  better  light  of  the  better  world. 
But  how  much  light  is  given  upon  it  in  that  book  ?  You 
see  that  these  friends  of  Job  are  mistaken  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  they  say  many  things  about  it  that  are  not 
strictly  true.  They  are  said  from  a  perverse  point  of 
view  and  with  a  mistaken  idea  of  the  matter.  I  have 
heard  people  quote  sayings  of  those  men  as  sayings  of 
Scripture,  when  it  ought  to  be  understood  that  the 
Scripture  says  that  those  friends  of  Job  said  certain 
things  on  that  occasion,  and  how  far  they  are  exactly 
right  will  have  to  be  judged  by  looking  at  the  book  as  a 
whole,  and  cannot  be  judged  otherwise.  Now  take  one 
man  at  a  time  and  ask,  what  does  he  say  ?  And  then 
how  does  Job  reply  to  him  ?  You  will  find  that  at  first 
they  take  hold  of  the  subject  delicately.  They  say : 
"The  Almighty  is  just;  he  prospers  all  good  men  ;  he 
never  sends  sore  trials  upon  a  man  unless  that  man  has 
deserved  it."  They  do  not  say  yet,  "  You  have  deserved 
all  these  sore  afflictions."  They  hint  it.  And  then  Job 
begins  to  reply;  he  gets  warm  with  the  argument;  he 
sees  what  they  are  hinting  at ;  he  says :  "  I  have  not 
committed  any  enormous  sins,  greater  than  men  around 
me,  to  bring  on  me  these  great  afflictions."  Then  they 


186  ON    READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

come  squarely  to  the  point  and  say,  "  Oh,  Job,  yon  had 
better  confess  it.  The  Almighty  has  found  you  out. 
"We  never  knew  that  you  were  a  very  bad  man  ;  we 
thought  you  were  a  very  good  man.  Everybody  thought 
so;  but  the  Almighty  has  laid  his  finger  upon  you,  and 
that  shows  that  you  have  committed  great  sins,  and  you 
had  better  confess  them  now,  and  maybe  you  will  be 
forgiven."  Job  warms  still  more  ;  he  lifts  his  hand  to 
high  heaven,  and  says :  "  God  knows  that  I  have  not 
committed  any  such  great  sins  as  you  speak  of  at  all. 
Oh,  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  him,  that  I  might 
get  away  from  you  who  will  not  do  me  justice,  and  do 
not  understand  me.  Before  him  I  could  argue  my  case." 
And  so  the  discussion  goes  on,  in  an  extremely  interest- 
ing way,  the  great  thought  being,  whether  great  suffer- 
ings do  prove  that  a  person  has  been  guilty  of  extraor- 
dinary sins.  Then  a  young  man  comes  in,  and — it  is  a 
lesson  which  old  men  would  do  well  to  lay  to  heart — the 
young  man  talks  more  wisely  than  all  the  old  men  had 
done,  though  he  does  not  explain  the  matter  yet ;  still  he 
says  :  "Ah,  the  Almighty  is  greater  than  we,  and  we  must 
not  expect  to  understand  all  about  him ;  we  must  try  to 
submit  ourselves  to  his  ways,  even  though  we  do  not 
understand  them."  And  then  Jehovah  himself  appears. 
I  remember  how,  when  I  was  a  lad,  I  was  first  reading 
the  book  of  Job,  with  some  help  in  getting  the  idea, 
and  when  I  reached  this  point  my  heart  took  a  leap.  I 
said :  "  Now  Jehovah  himself  appears,  and  he  will  clear 
the  whole  matter  up."  But  he  does  not ;  he  simply 
says :  "Who  are  you  ?  What  are  you  talking  about  ? 
What  do  you  know  ?  What  power  have  you  ?  What 


ON    READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  187 

wisdom  have  you  to  survey  the  universe  and  compass 
eternity  ?  Why  should  you  expect  to  understand  every- 
thing ?  Remember  how  great  am  I  and  remember  how 
little  are  you,  and  bow  yourselves  in  humility,  even 
where  you  cannot  understand."  And  oh  !  friends  and 
brethren,  amid  all  our  wide,  wild  questionings  in  life — 
and  rightful  questions  too,  if  they  are  not  mad — the 
loftiest  knowledge  in  human  life  is  to  learn  how  to  be 
willing,  when  we  cannot  understand  Jehovah's  ways,  to 
bow  to  Jehovah's  will,  and  put  our  sole  trust  in  him. 

There  is  only  one  more  book  that  I  shall  mention  for 
illustration.  Do  you  read  the  book  of  Revelation  in 
your  family  much  ?  Do  you  preach  about  it  much  in 
your  pulpit  ?  I  do  not  know  whether  to  hope  that  you 
do  or  do  not,  because  a  great  deal  of  the  preaching 
about  this  book,  and  writing  about  it  that  I  have  come 
in  contact  with,  would  better  have  been  let  alone, 
according  to  my  judgment ;  but  the  greatest  evil  that 
happens  about  it  is,  that  a  great  many  good  people  are 
led  to  neglect  the  book  of  Revelation.  I  asked  a  very 
able  minister  once,  "  Do  you  pay  much  attention  to  the 
book  of  Revelation  ?"  He  said,  "  No.  I  have  no 
opinion  of  these  calculations  of  prophecy,  that  have 
been  made  a  hundred  times  over,  and  a  hundred  times 
over  have  turned  out  failures.  I  don't  believe  those 
men  know  anything  about  it,  and  I  am  sure  I  don't. 
And  so  I  think  I  had  better  read  somewhere  else." 
Meantime,  get  your  little  child  to  say,  if  your  child  has 
heard  the  Bible  read  much,  whereabouts  you  shall  read 
the  next  time,  and  see  if  the  child  does  not  say,  "  Please 
turn  over  there  to  that  last  part  and  read  that  again." 


188  ON    READING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

There  is  much  in  the  book  of  Revelation  that  takes 
hold  upon  children.  Allow  me  to  mention  a  personal 
reminiscence  of  something  that  touched  me  very  much. 
Years  ago,  when  my  family  included  servants,  I  used  to 
try  very  hard  to  get  the  servants  and  the  children 
interested  in  the  family  worship.  I  tried  the  parables ; 
I  tried  the  life  of  our  Lord ;  I  tried  many  other  parts 
of  the  Bible ;  sometimes  they  were  interested,  and  some- 
times not,  and  at  length  it  occurred  to  me,  "  Now  I  will 
see  if  they  will  not  be  interested  in  the  Revelation,  that 
contains  so  much  beautiful  imagery."  So  I  began,  and  I 
found  that  the  servants  and  the  children  were  very  much 
interested  for  several  days.  I  tried  to  explain  a  little, 
and  I  could  do  that  very  well  for  the  first  few  chapters 
about  the  churches,  etc.,  and  could  explain  the  scene  of 
worship  in  heaven  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters. 
Then  we  got  on  into  the  opening  of  the  seals  and  the 
sounding  of  the  trumpets,  and  I  stopped  explaining,  for 
a  reason  that  you  can  perhaps  conjecture.  But  I  did  not 
stop  reading.  They  told  me  to  go  on  with  it.  They  all 
seemed  to  be  interested.  At  length,  after  many  days,  we 
were  far  over  in  the  middle  of  Revelation,  and  I  was 
reading  some  of  that  splendid,  solemn,  impressive 
imagery  that  is  there  presented — like  the  unrolling  of  a 
mighty  panorama,  scene  after  scene  of  wonder  and 
power,  and  struggle  and  conflict,  and  hope  and  promise — 
and  one  day  as  I  was  reading  I  looked  up  through  my 
tears  and  all  the  circle,  from  the  aged  grandmother  down 
to  the  little  child,  were  in  tears  too.  You  may  say  we 
did  not  know  exactly  what  it  was  about.  Yes,  we  did. 
It  was  about  God — about  God  looking  down  on  this 


ON    READING   THE    BIBLE    BY    BOOKS.  180 

world  of  ours,  about  the  sorrows  and  struggles  of  this 
human  life  and  the  fact  that  God  sees  it  all,  is  watching 
and  controlling  it  all. 

I  have  mentioned  this  for  a  purpose.  I  beseech  you, 
read  the  book  of  Revelation.  If  you  have  no  definite 
views  as  to  the  predictive  portions  of  the  book  (and  i 
have  not,  I  confess),  let  them  alone,  but  read  for  the  sake 
of  practical  instruction  ;  that  the  book  may  bring  Jesus, 
the  exalted  Redeemer,  close  to  you ;  that  it  may  make 
clear  to  you  the  idea  that  heaven  is  the  headquarters  of 
the  Christian,  from  which  the  angels  come  as  messengers 
to  bring  the  word  of  command,  and  carry  back  word 
as  to  what  is  going  on  in  this  battlefield  of  life.  The 
book  of  Revelation  tells  us  that  these  sorrows,  tempta 
tious  and  trials  are  to  end  at  last  in  complete  victory, 
and  in  everlasting  peace  and  joy.  And  to  get  sentiments 
like  these,  oh  ye  cultivated  men  and  women,  in  this  cul- 
tivated age  of  ours — to  get  tender,  devoted,  loving  sen- 
timents like  these  deeply  impressed  upon  loving  hearts, 
is  worth  all  culture  that  falls  short  of  them. 

Now,  I  have  just  two  or  three  remarks  to  make  in 
conclusion.  If  we  read  the  Bible  by  books,  first  taking 
each  book  as  a  whole,  then  seeing  how  it  is  divided  up, 
then  taking  the  several  divisions  and  treating  them,  and 
so  coming  down  to  details,  we  shall  learn  in  that  way,  and 
learn  for  ourselves  how  to  interpret  the  several  parts  of 
Scripture  with  reference  to  their  connection.  Every- 
body will  agree  that  you  ought  to  look  at  the  connection 
of  a  passage  of  Scripture.  I  remember  one  day  my 
father  said  he  did  not  like  to  find  fault  with  preachers, 
but  he  wished  some  of  them  would  pay  more  attention 


190  ON   READING    THE    BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

to  the  connection  of  the  text,  as  the  preacher  that  morn- 
ingdid  not  do.  I  suppose  they  have  grown  wisersince  that 
day,  and  always  do  pay  attention  to  the  connection  now. 
But  in  talking  about  it  my  father  said,  "  Now,  I  can 
prove  to  you  out  of  the  Bible — it  was  an  illustration  to 
a  little  child — that  there  is  no  God."  He  got  his  Bible, 
opened  it  to  a  certain  place,  put  his  finger  down  and 
said,  "  Come  here  and  read  ; "  and  the  boy  read, "  There 
is  no  God,"  and  it  began  with  a  capital  T,  too,  as  if  it 
were  a  complete  sentence.  Then  my  father  lifted  his 
finger  and  said,  "How  is  that?  'The  fool  hath  said  in 
his  heart,  There  is  no  God.' "  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  don't 
you  see,  you  must  always  attend  to  the  connection." 
That  was  a  very  simple  lesson,  certainly.  What  is  the 
connection  of  a  passage  of  Scripture  ?  Only  the  other  part 
of  the  sentence  ?  Well,  there  are  preachers  sometimes  who 
do  not  attend  even  to  the  other  part  of  the  sentence,  and  it 
may  be  true  of  some  other  persons  besides  preachers. 
But  is  that  all  the  connection,  only  a  sentence  before  or 
after  a  particular  passage  you  are  considering  ?  Some- 
times that  is  all,  but  in  other  cases  it  is  a  page  or  two 
that  is  the  connection,  and,  as  I  have  said,  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  and  in  the  book  of  Job,  it  is  the  whole 
book  that  is  the  connection  ;  you  cannot  be  sure  that  you 
are  getting  the  precise  point  of  view  and  the  real  meaning 
of  any  one  of  the  sentences,  unless  you  take  it  as  a  part 
of  the  whole,  and  with  reference  to  the  whole  line  of 
thought  and  practical  design.  You  see  how  important 
it  is  that  we  should  learn  to  study  every  particular  ex- 
pression of  Scripture  in  its  connection.  It  is  a  very 
beautiful  thing  to  pick  out  the  passages  of  Scripture  that 


ON   BEADING   THE   BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  191 

treat  of  some  particular  subject,  as  you  can  do  with  the 
help  of  a  concordance,  and  put  them  together  in  a  mo- 
saic. It  is  like  taking  many  pebbles  and  combining  them, 
as  the  Romans  were  fond  of  doing,  into  a  mosaic.  That 
is  a  very  delightful  thing,  only  be  sure  about  your  ma- 
terial. Take  care  that  you  see  where  these  things  come 
from,  and  that  you  have  got  them  right.  No  man  would 
be  so  unwise  as  to  take  out  of  the  Epistle  of  Paul,  "  A 
man  is  justified  by  faith  without  the  works  of  the  law," 
and  then  take  a  fragment  out  of  James,  "  We  know  that 
a  man  is  justified  by  works  and  not  by  faith  only,"  and 
lay  those  two  together  and  say,  "  How  beautiful  is  the 
harmony  of  Scripture !  "  We  know  we  must  see  what 
Paul  was  talking  about  and  to  whom  he  was  talking, 
and  to  what  sort  of  persons  James  was  talking,  and 
what  he  was  talking  at,  in  order  to  judge  what  each 
meant  by  this  particular  form  of  expression ;  we  dare 
not  put  those  two  passages  side  by  side  and  neglect  the 
connection.  Now  in  many  other  cases  the  difficulty  and 
danger  are  not  so  obvious,  but  they  may  be  just  as  real. 
So  often,  when  a  man  with  his  concordance  is  picking 
out  passages  that  all  contain  a  certain  word  or  refer  to 
a  certain  subject,  and  laying  them  all  together  in  a  beau- 
tiful picture  to  please  the  eye,  it  is  as  if  he  made  a  mo- 
saic in  this  fashion  :  Here  is  a  pebble  and  there  is  a  dia- 
mond ;  here  is  a  crumb  of  sugar  and  there  is  a  flower 
bulb ;  and  those  make  a  mosaic,  do  they  ?  A  mosaic  is 
a  beautiful  thing,  but  your  materials  must  be  harmonious. 
You  must  know  where  these  things  come  from.  You 
must  understand  their  connection,  or  else  you  will  break 
living  things  all  to  pieces,  in  order  to  build  up  the  dead 
fragments  into  a  dead  thing. 


192  ON    READING   THE    B1BJ.E   BY    BOOKS. 

Then  another  remark.  Each  of  these  sacred  books 
has  its  special  aim  and  practical  value,  and  we  ought  to 
try  to  get  the  practical  impression  that  each  of  them  is 
designed  to  make.  For  instance,  each  of  the  Gospels 
presents  certain  aspects  of  the  life,  character  and  work 
of  our  Lord.  Those  aspects  are  often  overstated  in  the 
books  about  them,  but  you  can  catch  the  matter  practi- 
cally. Next  year  when  we  shall  all  be  studying  the 
Gospel  of  Mark,  in  Sunday-School  lessons,  the  attention 
of  half  the  Christian  world  will  be  turned  to  those  par- 
ticular aspects  of  the  life,  character  and  teachings  of  Jesus 
which  are  presented  in  that  Gospel.  You  read  one  Gos- 
pel to  see  how  that  presents  Jesus,  and  each  of  the  other 
Gospels  to  see  how  it  presents  him,  and  if  you  have  done 
that  and  then  try  to  blend  them  all  together  in  your  lov- 
ing faith,  and  reverence  and  humble  desire  to  live  like 
him,  God  being  your  helper,  and  to  bring  others  with 
you  to  follow  him  too,  you  have  made  the  most  beauti- 
ful harmony  of  the  Gospels  that  ever  is  made  in  this 
world.  So  as  to  other  portions  of  the  Scripture.  "We 
ought  to  get  the  devout  and  practical  inspiration  which 
each  particular  book  is  designed  to  give,  and  these,  one 
after  another,  will  unite  themselves  together  in  the  sym- 
metry of  a  complete  Christian  character,  and  the  fulness 
and  power  of  a  true  Christian  life. 

It  is  not  an  accident,  brethren,  that  in  this  age,  in 
which  infidelity  has  anew  become  blatant  and  arrogant, 
the  Bible  is  more  studied  than  ever  it  was  before.  It  is 
not  an  accident  that  there  is  a  new  demand,  throughout 
the  Christian  world,  springing  up  for  Biblical,  ex- 
pository preaching.  There  has  not  been  such  a  desire 


ON   READING   THE   BIBLE    BY    BOOKS.  193 

outside  of  Scotland,  the  great  and  noble  home  of  ex- 
pository preaching,  for  many  generations.  It  is  not  an 
accident  that  these  Bible-readings,  which  have  done  so 
much  in  our  time,  and  will  do  so  much,  have  become 
popular  just  now.  People  don't  know  about  bejieving  the 
preacher  nowadays,  and  a  great  many  people  don't  know 
about  acknowledging  the  authority  of  a  church  as  they  once 
did ;  but  the  people  who  come  to  hear  the  gospel,  if  you 
bringthern  something  right  out  of  the  Bible,  not  a  broken, 
dead  fragment,  but  a  part  of  the  living  whole,  full  of  the 
true,  divine  life,  and  show  them  its  meaning  as  God  has 
taught  it,  and  lay  that  meaning,  explained,  upon  their 
hearts  and  their  lives,  the  people  everywhere  respond  to 
that ;  they  like  it ;  they  feel  that  that  is  good.  It  is  not 
an  accident  that  in  a  time  when  infidelity  is  so  bold  and 
noisy,  there  has  come  this  revived  love  of  Bible-study 
and  Bible-preaching,  Bible-readings,  Bible-classes  and 
Bible-work  in  general. 

They  say  that  the  cultivated  mind  of  the  age  has  had 
enough  of  the  Bible.  Does  it  look  as  though  people  had 
stopped  reading  the  Bible  ?  You  see  men  in  the  street- 
cars reading  the  New  Testament.  When  I  passed 
through  Cincinnati  on  Monday,  I  ran  to  a  book-store  to 
get  a  copy  of  the  Revised  New  Testament,  and  I  saw  a 
man  buy,  before  my  eyes,  the  last  copy  they  had,  out  of 
a  thousand  sold  over  the  counter  that  morning.  God  be 
thanked  for  this  revived  demand  for  it.  But,  oh,  men 
and  brethren,  we  do  not  read  the  Bible  as  we  ought  to 
read.  It  is  easier  to  eulogize  the  Bible  than  to  love  it. 
It  is  as  easy  to  praise  as  it  is  for  some  poor,  silly 
opposer  to  make  sport  of  the  Bible.  Dr.  Johnson  said 
13 


194  ON   BEADING   THE  BIBLE   BY   BOOKS. 

that  a  man  of  real  wit  would  be  ashamed  to  make  jests 
about  the  Bible,  because  it  is  too  easy  to  do.  It  is  just 
as  easy  to  eulogize  the  Bible  aud  then  to  neglect  it. 

I  have  spoken  with  the  hope  that  I  might  by  God's 
blessing  awaken  in  some  of  you  at  least  a  greater  desire 
to  read  the  Bible  attentively,  and  I  pray  God  that  we 
may  all  turn  away' with  an  earnest  promise  in  our  own 
souls,  before  him  who  knows  the  heart,  that  in  the  re- 
mainder of  our  lives  we  will  try  to  love  his  word  more, 
to  read  it  more  wisely,  and  to  live  more  according  to  its 
blessed  teachings. 

If  anybody  wishes  to  ask  questions  about  these  mat- 
ters, and  you  are  willing  to  listen  a  few  minutes,  I  shall 
be  glad  to  answer  them  if  I  can. 

Q.  You  spoke  of  analyses.  What  analyses  would 
you  recommend  ? 

A.  The  analyses  which  are  contained  in  Home's  In- 
troduction are  very  good  for  this  purpose.  It  is  an  old 
book  which  can  be  picked  up  anywhere.  The  analyses 
in  Angus's  Bible  Hand-book  are  short  and  very  good 
for  this  purpose. 

Q,.  If  a  person  has  read  the  Bible  through  two  or 
three  times,  and  has  a  general  idea  of  it,  would  you  ad- 
vise his  stopping  that  plan,  arid  spending  the  time  on 
separate  books  ? 

A.  The  best  of  all  ways,  of  course,  would  be  to  read 
the  Bible  in  three  different  ways  at  once,  if  a  man  had 
time  for  it — to  read  very  rapidly  through  the  Bible  once 
or  twice  a  year,  also  read  some  books  carefully,  and  daily 
some  small  portions  as  a  part  of  private  devotions.  But 
I  should  say  that  most  persons  would  find  it  better,  in- 


ON    READING   THE    BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  195 

stead  of  continuing  to  read  it  through  in  the  way  you 
mention,  to  take  a  book  and  study  in  the  way  I  have 
indicated. 

Q.  What  book  would  you  advise  a  young  convert  to 
begin  with  ? 

A.  Well,  that  would  depend  upon  his  previous  Bible 
knowledge  and  general  intelligence.  But  I  think  that 
there  is  nothing  so  important  for  the  young  Christian  as 
to  read  the  story  of  Jesus  himself  as  told  in  the  Gospels. 
The  whole  thought  and  feeling  of  our  time  seems  to 
gather  itself  about  the  idea  of  Jesus.  That  is  the  cita- 
del of  the  Scriptures  for  attack  and  defence,  and 
that  is  the  heart  of  the  Scriptures  for  love.  I  should 
say  to  the  young  convert,  "  Read  the  Gospel  of  Mark ; 
then  read  Matthew,  Luke  and  John." 

Q.  Would  you  advise  haste  in  going  from  one  book 
to  another  before  you  have  got  the  best  judgment  ou 
one  ? 

A.  It  would  depend  upon  your  knowledge  of  Scrip- 
ture whether  you  should  go  rapidly.  It  would  depend 
upon  your  own  staying  qualities,  too. 

Q.  If  you  wanted  to  impress  a  skeptical  man,  who 
was  seeking  sincerely  for  light,  with  the  inward  truth 
of  the  Scripture,  what  book  would  you  advise  him  to 
begin  with  ? 

A.  Oh,  I  should  give  him  the  Gospels,  and  tell  him, 
"  Try  to  get  near  to  Jesus  Christ ;  try  as  you  read  it  to 
seem  to  be  looking  at  him  and  listening  to  him." 

Q.  Would  you  advise  the  reading  of  books  of  the 
New  Testament  and  books  of  the  Old  together  for  the 
light  they  throw  on  one  another? 


196  ON   READING   THE    BIBLE   BY    BOOKS. 

A.  That  is  very  desirable  sometimes.  Leviticus  and 
Hebrews  may  be  read  together  very  profitably ;  or 
Matthew  and  Isaiah.  There  are  different  expedients 
that  each  person  will  discover  and  adopt  according  to  his 
own  judgment  and  advantages. 

Q.  Do  you  recommend  the  use  of  the  marginal  refer- 
ences? 

A.  They  are  very  desirable  indeed,  provided  you  pay 
attention  to  the  connection  which  you  find  referred  to. 
You  must  not  take  them  as  scraps,  and  put  them  where 
they  are  cited  as  if  they  belonged  there.  You  must  re- 
member where  they  do  belong. 

Q.  What  brief  word  of  counsel  would  you  give  in  re- 
gard to  the  use  of  commentaries  ? 

A.  Well,  it  would  be  this  :  Be  sure  you  get  the  very 
best  commentaries  there  are  ;  for  there  are  commentaries 
and  commentaries. 

Q.  Will  you  please  recommend  one? 

A.  Well,  that  is  a  very  hard  thing  to  do  here.  Use 
your  commentaries  all  that  you  can,  provided  you  do 
not  read  them  instead  of  reading  the  sacred  text.  Head 
the  Bible  itself  in  its  own  connection,  and  commentaries 
to  help.  I  remember  a  singing-master  from  whom  I 
took  lessons  when  a  lad.  When  the  ladies  would  not 
beat  time,  he  used  to  stop  and  say,  "  Why  don't  you 
beat  time?  Ladies,  if  you  can't  sing  and  beat  time 
both,  stop  singing  and  beat  time."  If  you  can't  read 
the  Bible  and  commentaries  both,  let  commentaries 
alone. 

Q.  Would  you  advise  the  marking  of  Bibles? 

A.  Yes ;  mark  them  in  every  way. 


ON   READING   THE  BIBLE   BY   BOOKS.  197 

Q.  Would  you  not  advise  much  prayer  and  com- 
munion with  God  in  the  study  of  the  Bible,  in  order  to 
a  better  understanding  of  it  ? 

A.  Oh,  assuredly  I  should  advise  prayer  and  com- 
munion with  God.  I  ought  not  to  have  taken  that  for 
granted.  I  blame  myself  that  I  did  not  say  that.  We 
ought  to  pray  to  God  every  time,  for  that  is  the  heart 
of  the  matter. 

Q.  A  young  man  asked  me  to  ask  you,  how  should 
we  learn  to  love  the  study  of  the  Bible  ? 

A.  Well,  that  is  a  good  question ;  but,  like  a  good 
many  others  of  the  wisest  questions,  the  answer  cuta 
deep.  To  love  the  reading  of  the  Bible  more,  we  v  must 
love  him  more  of  whom  it  tells  us.  And  then,  by  read- 
ing the  Bible  more,  we  shall  learn  to  love  him  more. 
And  then,  by  trying  to  live  the  way  the  Bible  'tells  us 
to  live,  we  shall  read  it  with  more  satisfaction  and  un- 
derstanding. For  if  any  man  is  willing  to  do  the  will 
of  God,  he  will  know  concerning  the  doctrine. 

Q.  Would  you  advise  regular  hours  for  Bible  study  ? 

A.  Oh,  yes,  yes,  yes.  Regular  hours  for  reading  the 
Bible,  and  irregular  ones  to  boot.  It  depends  upon 
your  mode  of  life  what  hour  is  to  be  chosen. 

Q.  Would  you  recommend  the  morning  hour  rather 
than  the  evening? 

A.  That  depends  upon  whether  you  are  an  early 
riser.  I  do  not  think  you  can  lay  down  any  law  in  re- 
gard to  that  matter.  Everybody  must  find  out  for  him- 
self what  his  circumstances  and  his  habits  will  allow 
him  to  do  most  profitably. 


XIII. 

MINISTERIAL  EDUCATION* 

Give  diligence  to  present  thyself  approved  unto  God,  a  workman 
that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  handling  aright  the  word  of  truth. — 
2  Timothy,  2  :  14. 

I  WISH  first  to  indicate  some  of  the  leading  thoughts 
in  this  passage  of  Scripture,  in  the  second  chapter  of 
second  Timothy,  beginning  at  the  14th  verse.  The 
apostle  is  speaking  to  Timothy,  not  only  with  reference 
to  his  own  duty,  but  to  the  qualifications  of  the  men  who 
are  to  be  selected  as  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  whom 
he  must  instruct.  Addressing  Timothy  himself,  he 
says  :  "  Give  diligence  to  present  thyself  approved  un- 
to God,  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed." 
The  image  is  obvious  to  all.  A  minister  of  the  gospel 
is  compared  to  a  mechanic,  a  skilled  workman,  a  man  who 
has  stood  the  test  and  is  approved,  and  then  his  skill  in  his 
work  is  shown  by  the  added  phrase,  "  a  workman  that 
needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  handling  aright  the  word  of 
truth."  The  term  means  literally  "  cutting  straight," 
as  you  read  in  the  margin.  Perhaps  the  phrase  came 
from  the  idea  of  a  carpenter  cutting  a  straight  line  with 
his  saw  ;  possibly  from  Paul's  early  trade.  It  required 
a  very  skillful  workman  to  cut  straight  with  scissors 

•  Sermon  before  the  Missouri  Baptist  Educational  Society,  at  Liberty, 
Mo.  (the  seat  of  Wm.  Jewell  College),  in  1881. 
198 


MINISTERIAL    EDUCATION.  109 

the  rough  hair  cloth  of  which  they  made  the  Cilician 
tents.  Whatever  be  its  origin,  the  term  denotes,  in  a 
general  way,  skillful  work — a  workman  that  needeth  not 
to  be  ashamed,  cutting  straight,  handling  aright  the  word 
of  truth.  A  skilled  workman  is  the  minister.  Then 
the  apostle  proceeds  to  indicate  for  Timothy  himself,  and 
for  the  faithful  men  to  whom  these  things  are  to  be  com- 
mitted that  they  may  teach  others  also,  the  importance  of 
knowing  how  to  avoid  seductive  and  ruinous  errors. 
He  says  of  these,  "  charge  them  that  {hey  strive  not 
about  words,"  mere  logomachies,  "  to  no  profit.  Shun 
the  profane  babblings."  Presently  he  mentions  ex- 
amples, Hymenseus  and  Philetus,  who  had  thought  that 
the  resurrection  was  a  mere  spiritual  resurrection  and 
past  already,  and  had  overthrown  the  faith  of  some,  and 
Timothy  and  the  other  ministers  must  know  how  to 
shun  these  hurtful  errors.  If  they  do  so,  they  shall  be 
like  the  gold  or  silver  vessels,  honored  in  the  Master's 
house.  Another  point  about  them  is  that  they  must 
not  be  given  to  mere  babbling.  "  Foolish  and  ignorant 
questionings  refuse,  knowing  that  they  gender  strifes." 
The  word  is  literally  "  fightings  "  or  "  battles,"  and  the 
Lord's  servant  must  not  strive,  must  not  be  a  fighter. 
In  another  sense,  of  course,  we  all  know  that  the  Scrip- 
tures teach  that  we  must  fight,  but  you  see  what  is  meant 
here.  It  is  so  easy  for  a  man  to  be  a  fighting  minister  ! 
Some  men  are  fighting  ministers  for  the  very  reason  that 
they  have  not  what  the  apostle  here  enjoined.  The 
Lord's  servant  must  not  be  a  fighter,  but  must  "be  gentle, 
apt  to  teach,  forbearing  in  meekness,  correcting  them  that 
oppose  themselves."  Many  a  man  is  a  fighting  preacher 


200  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

because  he  does  not  know  how  to  do  anything  else.  It 
requires  some  wisdom  and  some  skill  to  teach  aptly,  to 
correct  with  gentleness  and  meekness  the  errors  of  those 
who  oppose  themselves,  and  try  to  win  them  to  the  truth; 
but  just  to  fight  requires  no  skill  at  all. 

You  see,  then,  this  passage  presents  very  varied  quali- 
fications for  the  minister  of  the  gospel — spiritual  and 
mental  qualifications  combined.  Of  the  mental  quali- 
fications, you  see  that  it  indicates  some  that  belong  to 
men  by  nature  and  others  that  come  by  cultivation ;  and 
as  to  the  qualifications  that  come  from  cultivation — ac- 
quired skill — these  come  partly  in  the  actual  exercise  of 
the  duties  of  the  minister,  but  they  may  come  all  the 
better  if  there  be  special  early  training  for  it.  Take 
the  image  of  the  mechanic.  "  The  only  way  to  learn  to 
preach  is  to  preach,"  the  fathers  used  to  say.  Certainly. 
The  only  way  to  learn  to  saw  is  to  saw,  or  to  learn  how 
to  make  horse-shoes  is  to  make  them.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  the  experience  of  mankind  that  while  some 
men  take  up  these  pursuits  and  acquire  some  skill  merely 
from  their  practice,  yet  it  is  usually  better  for  a  man  who 
proposes  to  be  a  mechanic,  to  work  in  his  early  attempts 
under  the  guidance  and  with  the  correction  and  encour- 
agement of  those  who  are  far  ahead  of  him  in  experience; 
and  if  men  have  found  that  so  in  all  the  mechanical  arts, 
why  should  we  be  surprised  to  find  it  so  in  the  great 
work  of  life  of  which  the  apostle  speaks  ?  "  A  workman 
that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed." 

Our  passage,  then,  brings  before  us  the  great  subject  of 
the  qualifications  and  the  training  of  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  Where  do  we  stand  to-day,  my  brethren,  as  to 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  201 

t 

ministerial  education  ?  What  is  the  duty  of  to-day  in 
regard  to  it  ?  As  to  our  past,  there  is  in  it  much  to  be 
thankful  for,  and  of  course  much  to  lament.  I  believe, 
for  my  part,  that  the  theory  of  the  Baptist  churches  as  to 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel  is  a  right  theory,  substantially. 
That  theory  has  always  been  that  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel  ought  not  to  be  restricted  to  men  who  have  been 
over  a  certain  fixed  course  of  mental  training  in  order  to 
it,  but  that  every  one  should  be  encouraged  to  preach 
who  feels  moved  to  preach,  and  whom  the  churches 
are  willing  to  hear.  At  the  same  time,  it  has  always 
been  the  theory  that  every  minister  of  the  gospel  should 
seek  to  be  a  competent  and  enlightened  man  in  general, 
and  in  particular  that  he  must  be  a  man  who  has  sound 
views  of  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures,  and  knows  how 
to  explain  them  to  others.  Our  brethren  have  never  held  that 
it  was  a  good  thing  for  a  minister  to  be  ignorant,  but 
they  have  held  that  it  was  not  a  disqualification  for  a 
minister  to  be  destitute  of  this  or  that  particular  kind  of 
mental  training,  provided  only  that  he  had  some  power 
to  preach,  and  people  were  willing  to  hear  him.  That 
theory  I  think  is  right.  It  is  what  the  Scriptures  en- 
join. It  is  what  was  true  of  the  early  teachers  of  the 
gospel — not  only  the  inspired  men,  but  others.  It  has 
been  an  absolute  necessity  for  this  new  country  of  ours. 
I  have  profound  respect  for  the  ministry  of  the  Presby- 
terian and  Episcopal  brethren,  for  instance,  but  I 
wonder  sometimes  what  in  the  world  would  have 
become  of  the  masses  of  the  people  in  America  if 
all  the  religious  persuasions  had  done  as  they  have  done 
with  reference  to  the  ministry.  They  have  had  for  them- 


202  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

• 

selves  a  cultivated  ministry,  in  general,  and  they  have 
had  all  the  benefit  of  this  select  and  exclusive  arrange- 
ment as  to  the  ministry,  and  some  of  them  all  the  pride 
of  it — which  is  natural.  But  if  it  hadn't  been  for  the 
great  Methodist  and  great  Baptist  bodies,  and  some  others 
like  them,  who  have  encouraged  men  to  preach  that 
were  destitute  of  this  artificial  course  of  training,  what 
in  the  world  would  have  become  of  the  masses  of  the 
people  ?  It  has  been  bad  enough  as  it  was ;  it  would 
have  been  flat  ruin  if  all  denominations  in  our  new 
country,  where  most  of'  the  lawyers  and  most  of  the 
doctors  have  been  men  without  any  special  training,  had 
insisted  that  it  should  be  otherwise  with  the  ministry. 
I  am  not  ashamed,  therefore,  of  the  fact  that  I  belong  to 
a  body  of  Christians  which  has  a  great  number  of  com- 
paratively uneducated  ministers.  I  think  that  in  our 
past  this  has  been  unavoidable.  I  think  it  has  been  a 
necessary  part  of  trying  to  see  the  gospel  as  it  is  and  do 
our  duty  to  the  people  among  whom  we  were  cast.  But 
things  are  changing.  Oh,  how  fast  they  change  !  A 
man  who  comes  from  my  part  of  the  world  to  this,  finds 
that  all  his  knowledge  of  geography  has  vanished.  He 
does  not  know  anything  about  the  country  at  all. 
States  that  were  thought  new  when  some  of  us  can  re- 
member, are  old  States  now,  and  all  around  me  I  hear 
people  talk  of  "going  West,"  which  seems  strange  to 
me.  Things  are  changing,  changing  fast  as  to  education, 
and  we  must  change  with  them,  and  if  our  Baptist 
churches  have  not  wisdom  to  see  that  the  conditions 
which  justified  our  past  as  to  our  ministry  are  changing 
and  rapidly  ceasing  to  justify  them,  then  they  will  pay 


MINISTERIAL    EDUCATION.  200 

the  penalty  of  their  lack  of  wisdom.  It  may  be  that  we 
have  gone  too  far  even  in  the  past,  and  that  some  are 
going  too  far  now  in  encouraging  the  entrance  of  men  in- 
to the  ministry  who  are  unfitted  for  it ;  some  unfitted  by 
their  grievous  ignorance,  and  others  still  more  ruinously 
unfitted — I  pray  you  agree  with  me  in  the  .statement — 
by  their  lack  of  sense.  For  I  can  find  you  ignorant 
men  who  ruin  the  Queen's  English  and  yet  have  sense 
and  character  and  have  done  great  good  ;  and  I  can  find 
you  men  that  can  speak  passable  English  enough,  and 
even  prate  about  the  learned  languages,  but  from  sheer 
weakness  and  silliness  have  always  been  a  disgrace  to 
the  ministry.  It  may  be  that  some  of  us  are  going  too 
fast  now,  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  towards  the  op- 
posite extreme — inclining  too  much  to  take  up  the  other 
idea,  that  all  ministers  ought  to  have  a  certain  artifi- 
cially-fixed kind  and  grade  of  preparation  for  their 
work.  It  may  be,  my  brethren,  that  in  connection  with 
institutions  of  learning  we  are  somewhat  prone  to  go 
from  the  one  extreme  to  the  other ;  and  if  that  be  so, 
we  ought  to  look  the  danger  in  the  face  and  guard 
against  it. 

What  I  wish  to  speak  of,  then,  is  our  present  duty  as 
to  ministerial  education.  And  I  have  three  points  of 
remark  about  it. 

first, — Ministerial  education  must  go  hand  in  hand 
with  general  education.  It  ought  to  keep  in  advance ; 
but  it  cannot  be,  as  a  general  thing,  far  in  advance  of 
the  education  of  the  people.  They  must  go  together. 
Why,  with  our  free  system  of  choice,  you  cannot  get  the 
churches  to  prefer  a  well-educated  man,  unless  they 


204  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

have  some  education  themselves.  A  man  who  has  been 
reared  among  intelligent  people  and  has  been  well  edu- 
cated, and  who  then  goes  to  preach  among  the  very 
ignorant,  is  startled  to  find  how  prejudiced  they  are 
against  his  ideas  and  against  him.  You  will  pardon  a 
very  homely  illustration  of  it,  egotistical  in  addition. 
I  remember  to  have  had  the  honor,  twelve  or  fifteen 
years  ago,  to  be  elected  pastor  of  a  very  large  country 
church  in  Upper  South  Carolina — the  largest  country 
congregation  I  ever  saw — where  there  were  many  noble 
people,  too;  but  they  had  just  been  gathered  in  by  hun- 
dreds, by  good  men,  and  never  taught  from  the  pulpit 
that  there  were  any  Christian  duties  to  perform.  At 
the  end  of  a  year  of  earnest  attempt  to  preach  there, 
with  many  encouraging  results,  I  had  the  cheering  in- 
telligence that  a  good  sister  in  the  neighborhood  had 
said,  with  reference  to  the  justly  beloved  old  man  who 
had  preceded  me,  that  she  "had  rather  hear  dear  old 
Uncle  Toll  give  out  one  verse  of  a  hime  than  to  hear 
that  'ar  Greenville  preacher  go  through  a  whole  sar- 
mon."  You  will  pardon  me,  for  I  wanted  to  illustrate 
the  fact  that  ignorance,  like  a  shell-fish,  secretes  a  coat- 
ing of  prejudice  that  hardens  all  around  it.  If  you 
could  make  all  your  ministers  educated,  as  long  as  the 
mass  of  people  are  comparatively  uneducated,  they  would 
often  not  want  them.  So  the  two  must  go  together. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  thing  very  easy  to  happen,  and  which 
sometimes  does  happen  with  all  our  precautions  against 
it,  that  a  certain  class  of  men  are  educated  away  from 
the  people.  It  is  not  true  of  the  highest  class  of  men. 
The  highest  class  of  men,  whatever  they  may  learn,  will 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  .     205 

not  forget  the  language  of  the  people,  and  will  not  fail 
to  be  able  to  bring  all  their  highest  efforts  in  reach  of 
common  minds.  But  it  is  true  of  some  men  of  very 
respectable  ability  that,  struggling  themselves  after  what 
they  call  "  education/'  they  get  away  from  all  sympathy 
with  the  common  mind.  They  don't  know  how  to  talk 
to  the  people.  This  happens  with  some,  not  from  lack 
of  intelligence  of  some  kinds;  it  is  from  lack  of  imagi- 
nation, from  lack  of  intellectual  sympathy  with  other 
minds,  from  lack  of  the  power  to  comprehend  the  way 
that  people  in  general  look  at  things.  I  have  known 
men — very  noble  men  in  all  their  aims  and  aspirations, 
and  men  very  wise  in  some  respects — who  could  not  get 
hold  of  the  people  at  all,  because  they  didn't  know  how 
people  in  general  think  about  things,  and  couldn't  pre- 
sent things  as  the  people  have  to  see  them.  And  then 
I  suppose  it  must  be  admitted  that  sometimes  a  man 
who  is  educated  away  from  the  people  thereby  shows 
his  essential  lack  of  sense. 

Here  is  another  difficulty.  Our  ministers  can  seldom 
receive  their  boyhood  education  with  a  view  to  the  min- 
istry. They  are  usually  called  into  that  work  when 
they  have  about  reached  young  manhood;  and  if  now 
they  are  to  be  educated,  all  the  education  of  their  boy- 
hood must  have  been  such  as  they  have  obtained  with- 
out reference  to  the  ministry.  As  long  as  people  in 
general  have  but  little  of  education — nothing  beyond 
elementary  instruction — so  long  will  most  of  the  young 
men  who  come  into  the  ministry  and  wish  to  prepare 
for  it  have,  for  their  earlier  boyhood  training,  only  what 
is  to  be  had  among  the  people  at  large.  I  speak  of  one 


206  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

of  the  most  familiar — painfully  familiar — phenomena  to 
all  who  are  called  to  instruct  young  ministers.  What  a 
common  thing  to  see  a  fine  young  man  under  this  dis- 
advantage !  You  can  see  it  in  his  eye  that  he  is  a  man. 
You  can  see  it  in  his  tones  that  he  wants  to  make  the 
best  of  himself.  You  can  see  how  he  works;  but  there 
are  the  disadvantages  of  his  comparative  lack  of  train- 
ing in  his  boyhood,  and  how  to  overcome  them  is  the 
question.  Many  men  never  can  fully  overcome  them, 
and  they  are  humiliated  sometimes  because  they  cannot 
spell.  Only  some  people  can  spell  the  English  lan- 
guage, I  believe.  It  is  a  torture  and  an  outrage  upon 
human  nature  that  ought  not  to  be  perpetrated  many 
generations  longer,  that  people  should  be  required  to 
spell  the  English  language  as  it  now  stands.  I  say, 
then,  that  if  our  ministers  are  to  have  earlier  education 
— boyhood  education — of  a  valuable  kind,  they  must 
obtain  it  without  reference  to  the  ministry,  and  so  there 
must  be  facilities  for  this  among  the  people  at  large.  I 
wished  to  explain  how  it  is  that  ministerial  education 
ranks  itself  necessarily  with  the  general -education  of  the 
people,  and  the  experience  of  our  churches  has  shown 
the  fact.  Almost  every  institution  of  learning  that  our 
Baptist  people  in  America  have  founded  has  been 
founded  with  special  reference  to  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel ;  but  then  they  have  found  that  they  must  asso- 
ciate this  with  the  education  of  others  also.  One  of  the 
wants  of  to-day  is  high-schools  that  shall  be  preparing 
our  half-grown  youths  for  whatever  they  are  to  do  in 
the  world,  and  then  as  many  of  them  as  are  afterwards 
called  into  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  will  have  the 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  207 

benefit  of  these  schools ;  high-schools — whether  they 
are  to  be  supported  by  the  public  at  large  or  founded 
by  Christian  people,  is  a  question  of  locality  and  cir- 
cumstances— high-schools  that  will  forbear  to  call  them- 
selves colleges;  that  will  not  attempt  to  take  upon 
themselves  the  functions  of  colleges ;  that  will  consent 
to  do  the  humble,  but  so  needful  work  of  giving  really 
thorough  instruction  in  the  elements  of  knowledge,  and 
if  they  must  add  some  other  things  for  those  pupils  who 
will  study  there  alone  and  will  never  go  to  college,  they 
should  still  give  to  these  mainly  the  thorough  training 
in  the  elements  of  knowledge;  high-schools  that  will 
teach  history — for  I  find  more  fault  with  my  pupils  from 
lack  of  knowledge  of  history  than  almost  anything  else ; 
for  how  can  a  man  know  anything  unless  he  knows  his- 
tory ? — high-schools  which  shall  give  thorough  training 
in  English  composition,  so  that  people  can  speak  and 
write  decently  their  own  language ;  which  for  those  who 
wish  to  study  the  classic  languages,  shall  teach  the  ele- 
ments of  those  languages.  President  Wayland  used  to 
say — I  am  using  familiar  incidents  for  my  purpose — 
that  there  must  be  a  mystery  about  Greek  grammar. 
"  For,"  he  said,  "  a  boy  learns  Greek  grammar  at  the 
common  school.  Then  he  goes  to  the  academy,  and 
learns  Greek  grammar;  then  at  college  Greek  grammar 
again,  and  then  to  the  theological  seminary,  and  still  he 
must  learn  Greek  grammar.  There  must  be  something 
very  mysterious  about  Greek  grammar."  If  there  were 
only  high-schools  in  which  the  teachers  were  willing  to 
teach  Greek  grammar  to  those  who  are  attempting  to 
learn  it,  I  know  a  certain  class  of  men  who  come  a  little 

jWUFFORD  tjOLLESE  LIB! 
Ma:  f 


208  MINISTERIAL    EDUCATION. 

later  on  in  our  ordinary  processes  of  education,  who 
would  have  much  occasion  to  thank  the  teachers  of  the 
high-school. 

This,  then,  is  my  first  point  of  remark,  that  ministerial 
education  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  general  education  ; 
therefore  people  who  are  specially  interested  in  the  edu- 
cation of  the  ministry  must  be  equally  interested  in  the 
education  of  the  people ;  and  our  colleges  need  few  things 
so  much  to-day  as  the  help  of  high  schools  that  shall 
prepare  young  men  to  enter  college  with  a  due  knowl- 
edge of  the  elements  of  education. 

My  second  point  is  this — Ministerial  education  must 
not  be — cannot  be — the  same  for  all.  I^et  us  not  go  from 
one  extreme  to  the  other.  There  are  differences  that  are 
felt,  and  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  them  ?  You 
have  no  power  to  coerce  your  young  men.  Some  of 
them  don't  feel  that  they  need  this ;  how  can  you  make 
them  feel  it.  There  are  wide  differences  in  circumstances. 
Some  men  are  called  into  the  gospel  ministry  compara- 
tively late  in  life,  and  we  must  not  get  away  from  that 
good  idea  of  our  fathers  that  this  is  the  right  thing.  Some 
of  the  noblest  ministers  of  the  past  have  entered  on  the 
work  of  preaching  when  they  were  of  middle  age,  but 
not  a  few  of  us  are  getting  towards  the  idea  that 
every  minister  must  go  through  a  certain  artificial  course 
of  training,  fixed  exactly,  and  have  even  thought  that 
the  idea  of  a  man's  entering  the  ministry  at  middle  age 
must  be  discarded.  Many  enter  the  ministry  somewhat 
late  in  life,  and  are  so  embarrassed  by  their  domestic  re- 
lations that,  for  an  extended  course,  they  are  without  the 
necessary  means.  Then  there  are  differences  in  men's 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  209 

natural  mental  structure  which  make  it  unwise  that  you 
should  carry  them  all  through  the  same  process  of  edu- 
cation. There  are  men  who  would  really  be  hampered 
by  an  attempt  to  make  scholars  of  them.  I  have  known 
— far  away  from  here,  of  course — ministers  of  the  gospel 
who  really  were  worse  for  having  learned  Latin,  be- 
cause they  wasted  their  time  in  attempts  to  do  that 
which  they  never  did  do  successfully,  or  they  were  con- 
ceited with  the  notion  that  they  knew  something  which 
they  really  did  not  know,  and  there  is  an  old  saying, 
which  you  must  pardon  again,  that  "  there's  no  fool  like 
a  fool  that  knows  Latin." 

So,  then,  I  insist  upon  it  that  we  Baptist  people,  in 
trying  to  elevate  our  ministry,  must  not  go  from  the  ex- 
treme to  which  our  churches  once  inclined  towards  the 
other  extreme.  If  we  do,  we  shall  be  false  to  all  our 
history ;  we  shall  be  false  to  what  we  conceive  to  be  the 
teaching  of  the  gospel ;  we  shall  be  recreant  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  approaching  future.  My  brethren,  we 
must  not  have  some  artificial  notion  of  education,  and 
allow  it  to  be  converted  into  a  mechanical  process, 
which  is  always  the  tendency.  People  talk  as  if  edu- 
cating a  man  was  just  taking  him  through  a  certain 
fixed  machine,  all  men  through  the  same  machine,  and 
coming  out  at  the  same  point  with  the  same  training. 
That  is  false  to  all  the  prodigious  variety  in  the  faculties 
and  tendencies  of  mankind.  We  must  constantly  guard 
against  the  tendency  to  make  education,  in  all  its  de- 
partments and  in  all  our  institutions,  a  mechanical  pro- 
cess, instead  of  a  process  of  growth  and  the  training  of  a 
living  thing.  Every  body  who  knows  anything  about 
14 


210  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

teaching  knows  that  the  main  thing  in  all  our  early  in- 
struction is  not  knowledge,  but  discipline,  and  yet  how 
constantly  people  are  overlooking  this !  You  ask  the 
ordinary  average  person  what  children  go  to  school  for, 
and  he  will  tell  you  that  they  go  there  to  get  a  knowl- 
edge of  certain  things.  That  is  not  the  main  thing.  The 
main  thing  is  the  discipline  of  mind,  as  every  body  who 
will  think  about  it  must  perceive.  When  a  young  man 
goes  out,  after  his  course  of  training  in  a  carpenter's  shop 
do  you  inquire  how  many  tools  he  has,  or  whether  he  has 
a  lot  of  lumber  ready  to  make  up  ?  You  inquire  whether 
he  has  learned  his  trade  and  knows  how  to  handle  tools 
and  work  the  material  that  he  will  get  as  he  needs  it. 
The  analogy  is  not  perfect,  I  know,  because  in  the  train- 
ing of  the  mind  that  which  we  use  in  the  training  be- 
comes tools  and  materials  for  the  work  of  the  future,  and 
we  have  in  this  to  combine  the  acquisition  of  materials 
with  the  discipline  of  our  faculties  and  the  acquirement 
of  skill.  But  while  we  combine  them  we  must  beware 
of  confounding  them,  as  men  are  prone  to  do. 

Come  now  to  my  third  point — Our  institutions  for 
ministerial  education^  or,  more  generally,  our  institutions 
of  higher  education,  must  be  greatly  improved  without  de- 
lay. There  are  no  men  who  feel  that  so  much  as  the 
men  who  have  been  struggling  on  amid  a  thousand 
difficulties,  and  have  often  done  very  noble  work,  and 
brought  about,  by  God's  blessing,  quite  good  results, 
amid  all  their  disadvantages.  If  you  knew,  as  I  could 
tell  it,  of  the  sore  struggles  through  which  many  of  our 
professors  have  passed,  called  to  attempt  three  times  as 
much  in  teaching  as  one  man  can  possibly  do  to  his  own 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  211 

satisfaction,  and  yet  how,  under  all  these  burdens,  they 
have  put  forth  their  utmost  power  and  have  done  good 
work — I  think  you  would  find  it  a  theme  for  pathetic 
reflection.  Our  institutions  need  more  instructors,  in 
order  that  the  work  may  be  divided  out,  in  order  that 
each  man  may  have  the  opportunity  to  devote  himself 
to  certain  things  and  know  them  thoroughly,  and  work 
at  them  with  the  intense  delight  that  comes  to  a  man 
when  he  feels  that  he  is  making  progress  in  the  subject 
he  loves.  The  tendency  of  our  time  is  to  specializing 
knowledge,  as  every  one  knows.  I  have  a  friend,  a 
geologist,  who  gained  his  professorship  in  one  of  our 
leading  American  institutions  by  the  fact  that  he  was 
not  only  a  geologist,  but  had  confined  himself  to  the  de- 
partment of  geology  which  pertains  to  fossils  and,  among 
fossils,  to  fossil  botany.  And  so  by  working  at  fossil 
botany  he  has  gained  a  name  in  Germany  and  a  noble 
place  at  home.  This  illustrates  the  tendency  of  all 
knowledge  now.  Men  have  to  work  more  and  more 
within  narrow  limits,  if  they  are  to  make  progress  in 
these  times  or  even  to  keep  up  with  the  progress  that 
others  are  making ;  and  so,  in  order  that  our  professors 
may  become  "specialists"  in  our  colleges — the  only 
thing  that  can  be  satisfactory — we  must  have  more  pro- 
fessors. This  is  a  crying  need  of  the  present  time. 
And  they  must  have  more  time  in  order  to  be  better  pre- 
pared. If  you  expect  your  professor  in  a  college  to  meet 
classes  three  or  four  hours  a  day  like  a  school-master, 
how  can  he  lecture?  How  can  he  come  with  his  mind 
all  full  of  one  theme,  and  all  the  reserved  nerve  force  of 
his  body  and  energy  of  his  soul  gathered  up  and  concen- 


212  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

trated  upon  one  burning  hour,  in  which  he  will  carry 
home  his  subject  to  the  hearts  of  those  who  hear  him, 
and  kindle  in  them  that  glowing  enthusiasm  which  is 
the  joy  of  a  young  man,  and  will  be  the  inspiration  of 
his  life  ?  Your  hard-worked  professor  may  kill  himself 
in  the  effort  to  do  that,  but  he  cannot  do  justice  to  him- 
self nor  to  his  pupils  nor  to  his  Master  nor  to  you. 

And  we  must  have  professors  who  are  better  paid,  so 
that  they  shall  have  the  means  of  commanding  comforts? 
without  intense  solicitude  about  it ;  so  that  they  shall  be 
able  to  live  fitly  in  the  better  society  of  their  community 
without  finding  it  a  burden  ;  so  that  they  may  give  their 
undivided  energies  to  their  duties. 

Well,  you  see  the  absolute  necessity  that  follows. 
Our  institutions  must  be  better  endowed.  They  must  be 
far  more  largely  endowed.  We  must  get  hold  of  many 
of  these  people  of  ours  who  mean  right,  but  who  are  not 
informed  in  this  respect,  and  we  must  widen  out  their 
minds  like  the  broad  Mississippi  Valley,  to  see  the 
greatness  of  education,  that  they  may  give  largely.  Some 
of  our  brethren  think  that  they  have  large  notions 
already  of  what  institutions  of  learning  ought  to  be, 
but  they  have  only  begun  to  see,  and  it  is  our  duty  to 
hold  up  a  high  standard,  and  spread  out  a  broad  view  of 
what  these  institutions  must  be  made.  The  endowment 
of  institutions  of  learning  is  a  thing  needed  for  the 
sake  of  the  poor.  There  are  many  who  fancy  that  some- 
how these  colleges  and  universities  are  gotten  up  for  the 
benefit  of  the  rich  ;  but  it  is  not  so.  They  are  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor,  and  I  speak  for  the  poor.  As  for 
the  rich,  they  do  not  need  any  word  from  me.  Here, 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  21  ?> 

for  instance,  is  a  man  who  wants  education,  and  first- 
class  education.  He  must  go  to  a  great  city  to  find  that, 
if  there  are  no  endowed  institutions.  He  could  find  that 
nowhere  but  in  a  large  city.  If  the  professors  are  to  be 
supported  by  the  tuition,  that  tuition  must  be  very  high, 
and  if  the  student  is  to  have  three  or  four  teachers  of 
eminent  talents,  he  will  have  to  pay  three  or  four  hun- 
dred dollars  in  tuition.  The  son  of  a  rich  man  can  do 
that,  but  what  is  to  become  of  the  son  of  a  poor  man  ? 
The  institutions  of  learning  come  in  to  open  their  halls 
free  of  rent.  The  chief  support  of  those  professors  will 
be  from  the  endowment,  and  the  man  who  is  compara- 
tively poor  can  thus  obtain  the  benefit  of  contact  with 
master  minds,  and  instruction  from  men  of  high  talents, 
which  would  otherwise  be  for  him  absolutely  impossible. 
It  is  for  the  poor,  I  say,  that  our  institutions  are  en- 
dowed. When  you  go  to  a  rich  man  say,  "  Do  your  duty 
as  one  whom  God  has  blessed  with  riches,  and  endow  an 
institution  for  the  sake  of  the  poor  all  around  you,"  and 
you  may  add,  "  Maybe  your  own  son,  that  goes  there 
from  the  home  of  his  wealth  and  with  all  the  benefits 
around  him  of  ample  means,  will  learn  to  study  from 
some  of  those  poor  young  fellows,  his  associates,  who 
make  him  work  by  showing  him  what  it  is  for  a  man 
to  work."  Last  February  I  was  a  great  deal  in  contact 
for  some  weeks  with  eminent  men  of  business,  and  there 
came  to  me  this  thought  about  our  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, which  you  may  have  for  what  it  is  worth.  When 
we  go  to  a  man  of  means  and  ask  him  to  give  largely  for 
the  endowment  of  an  institution  of  learning,  we  are  not 
begging.  I  protest  I  am  no  beggar.  When  I  go  to  a 


214  MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION. 

rich  man  and  say,  "  Come  help  us,  won't  you,  in  this  en- 
terprise," I  present  to  him  a  joint-stock  concern,  a  very 
popular  idea  now-a-days,  an  investment  which  will  yield 
him  large  dividends,  and  which  will  last  a  long  time.  I 
say,  "Here  are  our  men  who  have  given  their  whole 
lives  to  the  work  of  instruction.  They  have  toiled  early 
and  late  through  long  years  to  qualify  themselves  for 
teaching  certain  things,  and  they  are  willing  to  put  their 
lives  into  this — not  simply  a  little  of  what  they  are,  but 
all  of  what  they  are  they  will  put  into  it,  and  the  very 
fortunes  of  their  families.  Now,  if  you  will  put  some 
money  into  it,  then  you  and  they  will  be  in  a  joint-stock 
company,  and  you  will  be  doing  together  what  you  cannot 
do  without  them,  and  what  they  cannot  do  without  you, 
but  together  you  will  be  doing  a  work  that  will  bless 
humanity.  They  are  no  more  dependent  on  you  than 
you  are  on  them,  but  you  will  be  brothers  united  in 
a  common  work  and  receiving  results  in  common."  I 
think  that  is  the  right  view  of  the  matter,  and  that 
there  are  great-hearted  men  of  wealth  who  would  rejoice 
in  the  idea  that  they  were  investing  in  that  which  would 
yield  large  dividends  to  them  and  the  world  and  which 
would  last  through  long  ages.  For  there  are  no  invest- 
ments in  the  civilized  world  so  permanent  as  invest- 
ments in  institutions  of  education  and  religion.  The  old 
universities  of  Italy  and  of  France  and  of  England  have 
lived  eight  or  nine  centuries — have  lived  through  all 
changes,  through  all  revolutions  of  governments,  through 
all  upheavals  of  society,  and  there  they  are  to-day.  No 
revolutionist  has  ever  dared  to  attack  them.  No  new 
government  has  ever  done  aught  but  wish  them  well^ 


MINISTERIAL   EDUCATION.  215 

and  perchance  help  them  on.  A  man  who  wants  to  put 
money  which  God  has  enabled  him  to  gather  where  it 
will  last  when  he  is  gone,  doing  the  work  that  he  has 
chosen  for  it  in  the  long  centuries  to  come,  must  choose 
a  mode  of  investment  in  some  institution  of  education  or 
religion ;  and  if  it  be  combined,  an  institution  of  educa- 
tion and  of  religion,  of  course  all  the  better. 

Now,  my  brethren — ministers  and  laymen,  men  and 
women — we  must  take  hold  of  such  thoughts  as  these, 
which  would  come  to  any  of  us  upon  reflection,  and  go 
among  our  people  and  stir  their  souls  with  the  thought 
of  the  opportunity  there  is  for  them,  the  many  to  give  a 
little,  but  especially  the  few  to  give  much,  for  it  is  only 
from  the  large  gifts  of  the  few  that  institutions  of  edu- 
cation have  received  ample  endowment;  to  stir  their  souls 
to  see  what  God  gives  them  opportunity  to  do,  and  what 
God's  high  providence  sends  down,  like  the  sunbeams 
out  of  heaven,  for  a  direction  to  them.  Not  all  rich 
people  are  selfish  or  mean ;  not  many  rich  people  are 
narrow-minded  or  ignorant ;  but  they  are  busy — busy 
with  their  own  affairs,  burdened  with  their  own  great 
burdens — and  somebody  must  go  and  tell  them  of  these 
openings  for  investing  money,  better  than  they  can  in- 
vest it  anywhere  else  in  all  this  world,  for  the  highest 
good  of  man  and  for  the  highest  glory  of  Christ. 


XIV. 

THE   AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774  * 


are  few  things  so  advantageous,  in  the  de- 
-*-  tailed  study  of  history,  as  to  establish  ourselves  at 
some  definite  point  of  the  past,  and  look  carefully 
around,  until  all  that  lies  within  the  horizon  of  that  time 
is  thoroughly  known.  The  period  just  named  for  this 
purpose  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  American  citizens,  as 
lying  at  the  threshold  of  American  independence,  and 
also  to  Baptists,  for  then  our  brethren  were  just  drawing 
near  the  end  of  their  struggles  and  suiferings,  and  pre- 
paring the  way  for  more  joyous  and  prosperous  work  in 
a  new  and  blessed  day  of  freedom.  The  limits  of  a  lec- 
ture will  of  course  not  allow  any  general  study  of  that 
grand  epoch.  Even  confining  ourselves  to  the  one  theme 
of  the  Baptist  ministry  at  that  time,  we  shall  be  able 
only  to  glance  rapidly  along  the  outlines  of  this  single 
department  in  the  wide  field  of  view. 

It  requires  a  great  effort  of  imagination  to  go  back  one 
hundred  years.  In  1774  there  was  nothing  of  our 
present  magnificent  country  but  the  thirteen  colonies 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  New  Hampshire  to  Geor- 
gia. In  many  of  these,  as  we  look  back,  we  see  that 
only  the  eastern  part  of  the  territory  is  settled,  even  in 

•Public  lecture  in  opening  the  session  of  the  Southern   Baptist 
Theological  Seminary,  then  at  Greenville,  S.  C.,  September  1,  1874. 

216 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OP  A.D.  1774.     217 

Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  hardly  one-half,  and  in  New 
York  and  Georgia,  only  the  southeastern  corner.  The  first 
feeble  settlements  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  are  but  a 
few  years  old.  There  has  been  in  the  colonies  great  po- 
litical discontent  for  some  fourteen  years,  particularly 
manifested  in  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  which  has 
grown  into  a  widespread  opposition  to  the  home  govern- 
ment. The  "  Boston  tea  party  "  occurred  last  winter, 
December,  1773.  The  first  Continental  Congress  is  to 
meet  in  Philadelphia  three  days  hence,  September  4, 
1774.  The  colonists  intend  to  maintain  their  rights  by 
force  if  necessary ;  but  very  few  are  as  yet  looking  for- 
ward to  independence.  The  Virginians  have  been  en- 
gaged all  summer  in  a  great  Indian  war,  which  will  end 
a  few  weeks  hence  with  the  "  bloodiest  and  most  deci- 
sive "  of  all  the  Indian  battles  at  the  mouth  of  Kanawha. 
Let  us  now  survey  the  leading  Baptist  ministers  of  the 
several  groups  of  colonies.  Many  able  and  useful  men 
have  long  ere  this  passed-  away.  In  the  previous  cen- 
tury Hansard  Knollys  and  Roger  Williams  were  Bap- 
tist preachers  in  New  England  within  less  than  twenty 
years  after  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  John  Clark 
founded  the  church  at  Newport  in  1644,  only  twenty- 
four  years  after  the  landing.  Still  others  were  coming 
over  from  England  and  Wales,  and  by  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century  there  were  seventeen  American  Bap- 
tist churches  in  existence,  situated  chiefly  in  Rhode  Is- 
land and  Massachusetts,  but  several  of  them  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  Jersey,  and  one  in  Charleston,  S.  C. 
Passing  to  the  eighteenth  century,  we  find  that  Elisha 
Callender,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College  and  a  pastor 


218     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

beloved  by  all  denominations  in  Boston,  died  in  1738, 
which  is  thirty-six  years  ago.  A  few  years  afterwards 
died  Valentine  Wightman,  a  man  of  marked  ability  and 
extensive  attainments,  who  founded  many  churches  in 
Connecticut.  And  still  earlier  in  the  century  was  Abel 
Morgan,  who  came  over  from  Wales  to  Philadelphia  in 
1711,  and  was  greatly  respected  for  his  ministerial 
knowledge,  zeal  and  usefulness,  until  his  death  in  1722. 
These  three — Morgan,  Callender  and  Wightman — are  all 
that  we  have  time  to  glance  at  of  the  departed  worthies, 
though  various  other  good  ministers  of  the  time  are 
known  to  history. 

Coming  to  those  who  are  still  alive  in  1774,  we  must 
look  first  at  leading  ministers  who  are  by  this  time 
growing  old,  or  already  widely  known — those  who  belong 
mainly  or  largely  to  the  past. 

A  number  of  these  are  found  in  New  England.  Timo- 
thy Wightman  succeeded  his  father,  Valentine  Wight- 
man, in  Groton,  Conn.,  and  though  a  man  of  less  power 
than  his  father,  has  been  very  devout  and  useful,  and 
has  brought  his  church  into  a  very  healthy  condition, 
with  repeated  revivals.  He  is  now  fifty-five  years  old, 
and  is  greatly  beloved  and  full  of  pastoral  work.  Gardi- 
ner Thurston,  of  Rhode  Island,  is  a  little  younger,  and 
has  spent  all  his  life  at  Newport.  He  was  not  educated 
at  college,  but  has  always  had  a  great  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge, and  been  very  diligent  both  in  general  and  in  theo- 
logical studies.  At  first  assistant  to  an  aged  pastor  for 
eleven  years,  and  giving  part  of  his  time  to  business  for 
a  support,  he  afterward  succeeded  him  and  has  for  fifteen 
years  been  full  pastor  and  entirely  supported  by  the  church. 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OP  A.D.'  1774.     219 

He  is  a  charming  man  in  private  intercourse,  and  in 
preaching  is  not  only  interesting  and  instructive,  but 
pathetic  and  solemn,  and  plainly  depends  much  on  the 
special  support  and  blessing  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In 
Massachusetts  is  the  famous  Isaac  Backus,  now  fifty 
years  old,  and  in  the  fulness  of  his  powers.  Reared  a 
Congregationalist  in  Connecticut,  and  converted  during 
the  "  Great  Awakening,"  produced  by  the  preaching  of 
Whitefield  and  others,  he  presently  went  off  with  the 
Separatists  or  New  Light  Congregationalists,  who  con- 
tended for  a  converted  membership  and  strict  discipline, 
and  for  an  internal  call  to  the  ministry.  After  preach- 
ing some  years  in  this  connection  he  became  a  Baptist, 
and  at  length  pastor  of  a  new  Baptist  church  in  Middle- 
borough,  Mass.,  in  which  position  he  has  now  remained 
for  eighteen  years.  Two  years  ago  he -was  chosen  agent 
for  the  Baptist  churches  in  Massachusetts,  to  labor  for  se- 
curing religious  liberty,  and  has  done  the  work  with 
great  zeal  and  ability,  corresponding  with  the  English 
Baptists  on  the  subject,  and  also  corresponding  with  the 
patriotic  Samuel  Adams,  as  the  Virginia  Baptists  are 
doing  with  Jefferson  and  Madison.  He  will  shortly  be 
in  like  manner  appointed  agent  to  attend  the  Continental 
Congress,  which  is  about  to  meet  in  Philadelphia.  Mr. 
Backus  has  already  published  several  sermons  and  a 
number  of  pamphlets  on  questions  of  Scripture  doctrine 
or  of  religious  liberty.  And  he  has  been  busily  collect- 
ing materials  for  a  history  of  the  Baptists  in  New  Eng- 
land, the  first  volume  of  which  will  be  ready  in  two  or 
three  years.  Very  diligent  and  painstaking  in  the  col- 
lection of  materials  and  laborious  in  general,  his  writings 


220     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

are  full  of  reliable  information  and  vigorous  argument, 
though  somewhat  deficient  in  literary  finish.  He  is  a 
man  of  powerful  physique,  strengthened  by  early  work 
on  a  farm  and  by  much  travelling  on  horseback.  His 
commanding  appearance,  deep-toned  voice,  grave  argu- 
mentative style,  earnest  and  masterful  nature  and  fervent 
piety  make  him,  though  not  exactly  an  attractive,  yet  a 
highly  impressive  preacher.  And,  altogether,  he  is  at 
this  time  probably  the  most  influential  Baptist  minister 
in  New  England.  Fifteen  years  later  he  will  spend  six 
months  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  strengthening 
the  churches.  While  passing  over  various  others,  we 
must  not  fail  to  notice  Noah  Alden,  of  Massachusetts, 
now  forty-nine  years  old,  who  was  originally  a  Congre- 
gationalist,  but  has  been  for  nineteen  years  a  Baptist 
minister,  greatly  respected  for  his  wisdom  in  regard  to 
politics  as  well  as  religion,  and  very  useful  in  his  pastor- 
al work. 

These  are  the  older  men  among  the  leading  Baptist 
ministers  of  New  England  at  the  time  of  which  we 
speak,  Wightman,  Thurston,  Backus,  Alden.  Several 
others  are  younger,  though  already  well  known  and  in- 
fluential. Foremost  among  them  are  Manning  and 
Stillman. 

James  Manning  was  born  in  New  Jersey  thirty-six 
years  ago,  attended  the  famous  Baptist  School  at  Hope- 
well,  N.  J.,  conducted  by  Rev.  Isaac  Eaton  especially 
"  for  the  education  of  youth  for  the  ministry,"  and 
graduated  with  the  highest  honors  at  Princeton  College. 
He  speedily  grew  very  popular  as  a  preacher,  and  before 
long  became  pastor  at  Warren,  Rhode  Island.  Here  he 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     221 

was  the  most  active  person  in  founding,  just  ten  years 
ago,  Rhode  Island  College,  which  in  a  few  years  was  re- 
moved to  Providence,  and  is  destined  at  a  later  period 
to  be  known  as  Brown  University.  Of  this  first  Bap- 
tist College  in  America  Mr.  Manning  was  made  Presi- 
dent and  Professor  of  Languages,  and  he  and  the  college 
have  already  gained  a  warm  place  in  the  affections  of 
the  people  of  Providence  and  of  the  Baptists  of  all  the 
colonies. 

Samuel  Stillman,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  was 
brought  by  his  parents  to  Charleston,  S.  C.,  when  eleven 
years  old,  and  converted  under  the  ministry  of  Rev. 
Oliver  Hart,  of  whom  we  shall  hereafter  speak.  He 
received  a  classical  education  from  Mr.  Rind,  "  a  teacher 
of  some  celebrity  "  in  Charleston,  and  then  spent  a  year 
in  studying  theology  with  the  assistance  of  his  pastor, 
Mr.  Hart.  He  began  to  preach  in  Charleston  sixteen 
years  ago,  and  settled  first  on  James  Island ;  but  his 
lungs  becoming  diseased,  he  went  to  New  Jersey  as  a 
better  climate.  After  preaching  there  two  years  he  vis- 
ited Boston,  where  he  was  at  first  assistant  in  the  Second 
Church,  and  soon  afterwards,  nine  years  ago,  was  made 
pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church.  Here  he  rapidly 
sprang  into  great  popularity  and  influence.  His  preach- 
ing is  attended  for  the  sake  of  its  eloquence  by  men 
having  little  sympathy  with  his  thoroughly  evangelical 
doctrines,  including  prominent  lawyers  and  politicians. 
Highly  cultivated  and  careful  in  preparation,  he  yet 
often  indulges  in  "  sudden  bursts "  of  unpremeditated, 
impassioned  eloquence,  and  constantly  makes  free  use  of 
anecdote  and  other  illustration.  His  religious  visits  are 


222     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

valued  and  solicited  by  persons  of  all  denominations. 
He  is  also  taking  an  active  part  in  the  support  and 
management  of  Rhode  Island  College,  and  in  all  the 
work  of  the  Baptists  of  New  England,  and  has  already 
published  quite  a  number  of  excellent  sermons.  He  is 
now  thirty-seven  years  old.  Universally  admired  and 
beloved,  full  of  ministerial  work  in  public  and  in  pri- 
vate, in  his  own  church  and  elsewhere,  deeply  devout 
and  richly  blessed,  we  shall  find  in  all  this  survey  no 
Baptist  pastorate  so  truly  brilliant  as  that  of  Samuel 
Stillman  in  Boston.  Indeed,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
age  in  question  presents  a  more  popular  preacher  of  any 
denomination  in  America. 

Hezekiah  Smith,  by  birth  a  New  Yorker,  was  edu- 
cated, like  Manning,  at  Hopewell  School  and  Princeton 
College.  After  graduating,  he  traveled  South  for  his 
health,  and  was  ordained  in  Charleston,  S.  C.  After 
preaching  a  while  in  the  Pedee  country,  with  great  ac- 
ceptance, he  returned  northward,  went  to  New  England, 
and  finally  built  up  a  new  and  strong  Baptist  Church  at 
Haverhill,  Mass.,  of  which  for  the  last  eight  or  nine 
years  he  has  been  the  beloved  pastor.  He  has  also  made 
numerous  preaching  tours  as  far  north  as  Maine,  and  his 
dignified,  solemn,  truly  eloquent  preaching  everywhere 
makes  a  great  impression.  He  maintains  an  affectionate 
correspondence  with  Oliver  Hart  and  other  brethren  in 
South  Carolina.  He  is  now  thirty-seven  years  old, 
about  the  same  age  as  Manning  and  Stillman. 

There  is  little  time  to  speak  of  Samuel  Shepard,  who 
.was  a  young  Congregationalist  physician  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, but  was  converted  to  Baptist  views  by  reading  a 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.   1774.     223 

tract  found  at  the  house  of  one  of  his  patients ;  and 
soon  beginning  to  preach,  founded  three  new  churches 
in  New  Hampshire,  and  three  years  ago  became  their 
pastor.  Nor  of  John  Davis,  the  younger  of  that  name, 
a  native  of  Delaware,  prepared  at  Hopewell  School,  and 
graduated  at  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  and  after  some 
years  made  pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  in  Bos- 
ton— a  man  remarkable  for  learning,  abilities  and  use- 
fulness, cut  down  by  death  two  years  ago,  when  but 
thirty-five  years  old. 

Leaving  New  England,  we  come  to  the  Middle  Colo- 
nies. Of  the  older  men  who  are  still  living  three  or 
four  must  be  mentioned. 

Ebenezer  Kinnersley,  an  Englishman  by  birth,  and 
brought  to  this  country  in  childhood  by  his  father  (him- 
self also  a  Baptist  minister),  is  now  sixty-seven  years 
old,  and  has  spent  his  life  in  and  about  Philadelphia. 
Never  engaging  much  in  preaching,  he  has  been  other- 
wise a  very  distinguished  man,  both  as  a  zealous  co- 
worker  with  Franklin  in  discovering  the  properties  of 
what  they  call  the  Electric  Fire,  and  as  the  highly  pop- 
ular professor  of  English  and  Oratory  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  He  has  delivered  scientific  lectures  in 
the  chief  cities,  which  attracted  great  attention.  In 
1772,  two  years  ago,  he  resigned  his  chair  in  the  college, 
and  retired  to  the  country  in  feeble  health.  Abel  Mor- 
gan, Jr.,  nephew  to  the  older  minister  of  that  name, 
whom  we  mentioned,  was  born  in  a  Welsh  settlement  in 
Delaware.  After  his  ordination  he  came  with  a  com- 
pany of  Baptists  to  South  Carolina,  and  "  was  a  constit- 
uent member  of  a  church  called  Welsh  Neck,  in  1736." 


224     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

Returning,  he  became  pastor  in  MidJletown,  New  Jer- 
sey, and  has  now  been  there  for  thirty-five  years.  He 
never  married,  giving  as  a  reason  the  wish  that  "  none  of 
his  attention  and  attendance  might  be  taken  off"  from 
his  mother,  who  lived  with  him  more  than  thirty  years, 
and  died  only  three  years  ago.  His  learning  is  really 
extensive,  and  he  is  especially  skillful  in  disputation. 
Years  ago  he  had  a  public  debate  on  Infant  Baptism 
with  Rev.  Samuel  Finley,  afterwards  President  of 
Princeton  College.  It  was  Mr.  Finley  that  proposed 
the  discussion,  and  as  he  afterwards  printed  a  pamphlet, 
Mr.  Morgan  replied,  and  each  of  them  replied  again. 
These  were  probably  the  first  works  issued  in  the  New 
World  in  vindication  of  the  baptism  of  believers  only, 
and  they  are  said  to  show  decided  ability  and  good  learn- 
ing. Though  now  sixty-one  years  old,  Mr.  Morgan  is 
still  a  very  laborious  and  useful  minister.  John  Gano, 
born  in  New  Jersey  forty-seven  years  ago  of  a  Hugue- 
not family,  after  determining  to  preach,  spent  two  or 
three  years  in  studies  preparatory  to  that  work,  mean- 
time frequently  preaching,  even  before  he  was  licensed. 
In  response  to  earnest  requests  from  the  South  for  min- 
isterial help  he  was  induced,  twenty  years  ago,  to  come 
southward,  and  traveled  extensively.  In  Charleston  he 
preached  in  Mr.  Hart's  pulpit  in  the  presence  of  a  bril- 
liant audience,  including  twelve  ministers,  one  of  them 
being  George  Whitefield,  and  for  a  moment  (as  he  has 
recorded)  felt  the  fear  of  man,  but  soon  remembered  that 
he  "had  none  to  fear  and  obey  but  the  Lord."  Two 
years  later  he  made  another  tour  to  the  South,  and  set- 
tled for  two  years  in  North  Carolina,  but  being  driven 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     225 

out  by  the  Cherokee  Indians,  returned  North,  and  for  a 
while  preached  alternately  in  Philadelphia  and  New 
York.  Twelve  years  ago  a  church  was  at  last  organ- 
ized in  New  York,  and  Mr.  Gano  became  its  pastor,  in 
which  position  his  labors  have  been  gre*atly  blessed.  A 
small  man,  yet  of  manly  presence  and  commanding 
voice,  of  good  mind,  respectable  attainments  and  deep 
feeling,  he  is  a  highly  popular  and  effective  preacher. 

It  is  worth  while  to  notice  how  late  the  Baptists  were 
in  establishing  themselves  in  New  York  City.  They  or- 
ganized a  church  in  Boston  in  1664 ;  in  Charleston,  S.  C., 
1683;  in  Philadelphia,  1698  ;  in  New  York  no  perma- 
nent church  was  formed  till  1762.* 

Somewhat  older  than  Gano  is  Morgan  Edwards,  a 
native  of  Wales,  a  preacher  from  his  sixteenth  year, 
and  educated  in  the  Baptist  Seminary  at  Bristol,  Eng- 
land. After  preaching  a  number  of  years  in  England 
and  Ireland,  he  was  sent  to  America  thirteen  years  ago 
by  the  famous  Dr.  Gill,  in  response  to  a  request  from 
the  Baptist  Church  at  Philadelphia  that  he  would  send 
them  a  pastor.  The  story  is  that  in  writing  to  Dr.  Gill 
the  church  "  required  so  many  accomplishments  "  in  a 
pastor,  that  the  old  gentleman  told  them  he  did  not 
know  that  he  "could  find  a  man  in  England  who  would 
answer  their  description,"  but  that  Mr.  Morgan  Ed- 
wards "  came  the  nearest  of  any  that  could  be  obtained." 
After  remaining  eleven  years  in  Philadelphia,  he  re- 
moved, two  years  since,  to  Newark,  N.  J.  Mr.  Ed- 

*  There  was  preaching  in  New  York  as  early  as  1669,  and  a  little 
church  appears  to. have  been  formed  there  by  Valentine  Wightman 
about  1714,  but  it  was  afterwards  dissolved. 

15 


226     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

wards  is  a  man  of  genius  and  scholarship.  His  Greek 
Testament  is  "  his  favorite  companion/'  and  he  has  also 
a  good  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  Bible,  being  accus- 
tomed to  say  that  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  are  "  the  two 
eyes  of  a  minister,"  while  his  extensive  travels  and  wide 
general  reading  have  contributed  to  make  him  a  very 
interesting  man,  both  in  public  and  private.  He  has 
thus  far  published  three  sermons  and  a  History  of  the 
Baptists  in  Pennsylvania,  besides  collecting  much  mate- 
rial for  other  works ;  and  he  is  very  careful  and  critical 
in  respect  to  English  style. 

Besides  these  four  older  men  in  the  Middle  Colonies 
— Kinnersley,  Morgan,  Gano  and  Edwards — we  must 
notice  two  who  are  somewhat  younger,  but  prominent 
and  promising — both  of  them  named  Jones. 

Samuel  Jones  is  a  native  of  Wales,  but  was  brought 
to  this  country  in  infancy.  His  father,  himself  a  pas- 
tor in  Pennsylvania,  and  a  man  of  wealth,  was  deter- 
mined to  give  his  son  a  thorough  education,  and 
accordingly  Samuel  was  graduated  A.M.  of  the  College 
of  Philadelphia  in  1762.  For  the  last  eleven  years  he 
has  been  pastor  of  a  church  near  Philadelphia,  and  also 
occupied  in  teaching,  being  very  successful  and  highly 
honored  in  both  vocations.  By  his  excellent  judgment 
and  remarkable  self-control  he  is  particularly  useful  in 
meetings  of  the  Philadelphia  Association,  and  other  ec- 
clesiastical assemblies.  This  is  noteworthy,  for  success- 
ful preachers  much  oftener  possess  fervor  and  fire  than 
sound  judgment  and  equanimity.  David  Jones  was 
born  and  reared  in  Delaware,  and  educated  at  Mr. 
Eaton's  Hopewell  School  in  New  Jersey,  where  he  says 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     227 

he  "  learned  Latin  and  Greek."  Having  determined  to 
become  a  minister,  he  went,  thirteen  years  ago,  to  Mid- 
dletown  to  study  divinity  with  his  kinsman,  Abel  Mor- 
gan. For  the  last  eight  years  he  has  been  pastor  in 
Monmouth  County,  N.  J.,  but  two  or  three  years  ago 
made  three  different  journeys  to  the  distant  country 
about  and  beyond  the  Ohio  River,  preaching  to  the  In- 
dians, though  without  much  effect.  At  the  time  of 
which  we  speak  he  is  full  of  zeal  for  the  political  rights 
of  the  Colonies,  as  are  the  Baptist  preachers  everywhere, 
with  rare  exceptions.  Some  years  ago  he  made  a  visit 
to  New  York  City,  and  had  an  amusing  experience 
which  may  help  to  show  how  scarce  were  our  brethren 
in  that  place : 

When  I  first  came  to  New  York  [so  he  is  said  to  have  told 
the  story]  I  landed  in  the  morning,  and  thought  I  would  try 
if  I  could  find  any  Baptists.  I  wandered  up  and  down,  look- 
ing at  the  place  and  the  people,  and  wondering  who  of  all  the 
people  I  met  might  be  Baptists.  At  length  I  saw  an  old  man, 
with  a  red  cap  on  his  head,  sitting  on  the  porch  of  a  respecta- 
ble-looking house.  Ah,  thought  I,  now  this  is  one  of  the  old 
residents,  who  knows  all  about  the  city ;  this  is  the  man  to 
inquire  of.  I  approached  him,  and  said :  "  Good  afternoon, 
sir.  Can  you  tell  me  where  any  Baptists  live  in  this  city.?" 
"Hey?"  said  the  deaf  old  Gothamite,  with  his  hand  to  his  ear. 
Raising  my  voice,  I  shouted :  "  Can  you  tell  me,  sir,  where  I 
can  find  any  Baptists  in  this  place?"  "Baptists,  Baptists," 
said  the  old  man  musing,  as  if  ransacking  all  the  corners  of 
his  memory ;  "  Baptists !  I  really  don't  know  as  I  ever  heard 
of  anybody  of  that  occupation  in  these  parts !" 

We  now  leave  the  Middle  Colonies,  and  come  to 
speak  of  some  leading  ministers  in  the  Southern  Colo- 
nies, from  Maryland  to  Georgia. 


228    AMERICA:NT  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

In  Charleston,  S.  C.,  we  find,  as  already  several  times 
mentioned,  Oliver  Hart,  who  is  now  fifty-one  years  of 
age.  He  was  born  and  reared  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
when  a  young  man  often  listened  with  great  profit  to 
Whitefield.  Ordained  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  he  heard 
"  the  loud  call  for  ministers  in  the  Southern  Colonies," 
and  coming  South,  found  the  church  at  Charleston  va- 
cant, and  becoming  their  pastor  twenty-four  years  ago, 
has,  in  that  position,  been  highly  respected  and  widely 
useful.  He  takes  an  active  part  as  a  citizen  in  the 
movements  for  the  maintenance  of  colonial  rights  and 
liberties,  but  does  not  "mix  politics  with  the  gospel, 
nor  desert  the  duties  of  his  station  to  pursue  them." 
We  are  to  think  of  him  as  a  man  of  tall  and  graceful 
figure,  with  a  pleasing  countenance  and  voice,  and  while 
not  exactly  eloquent,  yet  an  exceedingly  instructive  and 
impressive  preacher.  Though  not  bred  in  college,  he 
has  been  a  diligent  student  of  the  classics  and  of  physi- 
cal science,  and  has  been  the  instructor  in  general  learn- 
ing and  in  theology  of  several  other  ministers,  among 
them  Samuel  Stillman.  Of  these,  Stillman  and  some 
others  were  furnished  with  the  means  of  support  by  the 
"Religious  Society"  which  Mr.  Hart  organized  in 
Charleston  nineteen  years  ago  (1755)  for  this  purpose. 

Shubael  Stearns  and  Daniel  Marshall  were  intimately 
associated  in  North  Carolina,  and  are  naturally  spoken 
of  together,  though  the  former  died  three  years  ago. 
Shubael  Stearns  was  born  in  Boston  in  1706,  and  under 
the  influence  of  the  Great  Awakening,  attached  himself, 
in  1745,  to  the  Congregationalist  Separates,  or  New 
Lights,  and  began  to  preach.  In  1751  he  became  a 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     229 

Baptist,  in  Connecticut,  and  after  two  or  three  years 
more,  longing  to  carry  the  gospel  to  more  destitute  re- 
gions, he  came,  with  a  small  colony  of  brethren,  to 
Berkeley  County,  Va.  Here  he  was  joined  by  Daniel 
Marshall,  who  was  of  the  same  age  with  him,  and  had 
also  been  a  Congregationalist  and  a  Separate  in  Con- 
necticut. Believing  that  the  second  coming  of  Christ 
was  certainly  at  hand,  Marshall  and  others  sold  or 
abandoned  their  property,  and  hastening  with  destitute 
families  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Susquehanna,  began 
to  labor  for  the  conversion  of  the  Mohawk  Indians. 
After  eighteen  months  he  was  driven  away  by  an  In- 
dian war,  and  went  to  Berkeley  Co.,  Va.,  where,  find- 
ing a  Baptist  Church,  he  examined  and  adopted  their 
views  about  1754.  He  had  married,  while  in  Connect- 
icut, the  sister  of  Shubael  Stearns,  and  the  two  became 
associated  in  Virginia,  and  soon  sought  together  a  still 
more  destitute  region  in  North  Carolina,  not  far  from 
Greensboro.  Here  they  and  their  little  colony  taught 
the  necessity  of  the  new  birth  and  the  consciousness  of 
conversion,  with  all  the  excited  manner  and  holy  whine, 
and  the  nervous  trembling  and  wild  screams  among 
their  hearers,  which  characterized  the  Congregationalist 
Separates  in  Connecticut.  Though  at  first  much  ridi- 
culed, they  soon  had  great  success,  building  up  two 
churches  of  five  hundred  and  six  hundred  members. 
Retaining  their  New  England  name  of  Separates,  they 
called  themselves  "  Separate  Baptists,"  and  these  spread 
rapidly  into  Virginia  and  into  Georgia,  though  destined, 
when  their  enthusiastic  excesses  should  have  been  cooled 
down,  to  be  absorbed,  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 


230     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

century,  into  the  body  of  regular  Baptists.  Stearns 
died  in  North  Carolina;  but  Marshall,  ever  looking 
out  for  new  fields,  came,  after  a  few  years,  to  Lexing- 
ton District,  in  South  Carolina,  where  he  built  up  a 
church,  and  finally,  three  years  before  the  time  of  which 
we  speak,  removed  to  Georgia,  not  far  from  Augusta, 
where  he  has  already  formed  a  considerable  church. 
Among  the  unusual  customs  of  the  Separates,  both  Con- 
gregationalist  and  Baptist,  was  the  practice  of  public 
prayer  and  exhortation  by  women ;  and  in  these  exer- 
cises Marshall's  wife  is  said  to  have  been  wonderfully 
impressive. 

In  one  of  his  preaching  tours,  from  North  Carolina 
back  into  Southern  Virginia,  sixteen  years  ago,  Daniel 
Marshall  baptized  Colonel  Samuel  Harriss,  of  Pittsyl- 
vania.  This  gentleman  had  a  good  social  position,  hold- 
ing numerous  civil  and  ecclesiastical  offices,  and  posses- 
sing some  wealth.  He  at  once  threw  himself  earnestly, 
with  serious  pecuniary  sacrifices,  into  the  work  of 
preaching,  and  in  the  course  of  these  sixteen  years  has 
made  preaching  journeys  through  a  great  part  of  Vir- 
ginia as  well  as  portions  of  North  Carolina.  His 
overwhelming  earnestness  and  wonderful  pathos  pro- 
duced so  great  an  effect  that  highly  judicious  men 
declared  that  even  Whitefield  did  not  surpass  him  in 
addressing  the  heart.  He  has  also  taken  an  active  part 
in  Baptist  efforts  to  secure  religious  freedom,  none  the 
less  that  he  himself  has  been  shamefully  persecuted  for 
preaching  in  Culpeper  and  Orange.  He  is  a  favorite 
presiding  officer  in  the  associations  and  other  business 
meetings  of  the  Separate  Baptists,  and  in  this  very  year, 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     231 

1774,  these  enthusiasts  having  concluded  that  the  office 
of  apostle  ought  to  be  perpetual,  Samuel  Harriss  and 
two  others  have  been  elected  and  solemnly  set  apart  as 
apostles,  an  office  which  will  be  silently  abandoned  by 
all  concerned  the  following  year.  Such  a  transient  no- 
tion is  but  a  spot  on  the  sun  of  his  noble  Christian 
character  and  life.  He  is  now  fifty  years  old. 

There  are  other  well-known  men  in  Virginia  at  the 
time  in  question  of  whom  it  would  be  pleasant  to  speak, 
such  as  David  Thomas,  forty-two  years  old,  a  Pennsyl- 
vanian,  educated  at  Hopewell  School,  and  removing 
when  still  young  to  Virginia,  where  he  has  been  very 
useful ;  but  we  must  pass  them  by,  as  we  have  passed  by 
many  good  men  in  other  colonies.  In  Maryland  we  find 
John  Davis,  the  older  of  that  name,  fifty-three  years 
old,  another  Pennsylvanian,  who  removed  eighteen  years 
ago  to  Maryland,  and  has  built  up  a  strong  country 
church.  There  is  as  yet  no  Baptist  Church  in  Balti- 
more. 

It  must  have  been  noticed  that  with  the  single  excep- 
tion of  Samuel  Harriss,  all  the  older  ministers  we  have 
mentioned  as  particularly  distinguished  in  the  Southern 
colonies  came  originally  from  the  North.  When  the 
early  Baptist  settlers  came  over  from  England  and 
Wales,  the  English  went  chiefly,  for  reasons  not  hard  to 
discern,  to  New  England,  and  the  Welsh  chiefly  to 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey  and  Delaware.  Next  to  these 
the  colony  to  which  Baptists  earliest  came, in  considera- 
ble number  was  South  Carolina,  and  here  the  number 
was  small  compared  with  New  England  and  the  Middle 
Colonies.  Thus  the  Baptists  were  at  first  far  more 


232     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

numerous  at  the  North  than  at  the  South,  and  naturally 
produced  a  larger  number  of  ministers.  Besides,  there 
were  already  more  general  opportunities  for  education  in 
the  Northern  Colonies,  so  that  ministers  from  that  region 
were  more  likely  to  become  distinguished.  And  further- 
more, the  work  of  Whitefield  and  others  awoke  the 
slumbering  Congregationalists  of  New  England,  and 
brought  out  the  enthusiastic  Separates,  many  of  whom 
became  Baptists,  and  traveled  southward,  in  a  mission- 
ary spirit,  to  supply  the  destitution.  These  considera- 
tions will  help  to  account  for  the  fact  mentioned.  And 
already,  in  1774,  if  we  look  at  the  younger  men  just 
coming  forward  and  giving  especial  promise  of  useful- 
ness, we  shall  see  a  very  large  number  in  the  Southern 
Colonies.  Some  of  these  young  men  we  must  briefly 
notice. 

William  Fristoe,  hardly  thirty  years  old,  is  already 
famous  in  Virginia,  with  many  seals  to  his  ministry,  and 
in  this  year  is  chosen  moderator  of  the  great  Ketocton 
Association.  "  Swearing  Jack  Waller,"  thirty-three 
years  old,  once  a  dissipated  young  man  of  good  family, 
and  a  persecutor  of  the  Baptists,  was  converted  and  bap- 
tized seven  years  ago,  and  some  time  after  was  long  im- 
prisoned for  preaching.  He  blazes  with  unquenchable 
zeal,  and  turns  many  to  righteousness  in  his  native 
State,  and  has  doubtless  little  idea  that  he  will  be 
buried  in  Abbeville  District,  South  Carolina.  James 
Ireland,  aged  twenty-six,  a  Scotch  school-master  in 
Northern  Virginia,  and  very  wicked,  was  in  a  singular 
manner  convicted  and  converted,  and  five  years  ago  was 
baptized  by  Samuel  Harriss,  and  beginning  to  preach 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     2";.°, 

with  great  zeal  and  effect,  was  soon  after  seized  and  im- 
prisoned at  Culpeper  Court-House,  where  his  enemies 
tried  to  blow  up  his  room  in  the  jail  with  gunpowder, 
and  to  suffocate  him  with  fumes  of  sulphur,  all  for 
preaching  the  gospel ;  and  he  retaliated  simply  by 
preaching  through  the  jail  window  to  the  people  who 
would  gather  around.  He  is  now  at  liberty  and  zeal- 
ously at  work.  William  Marshall,  of  Fauquier,  now 
thirty-nine  years  old,  was  converted  six  years  ago. 
Being  of  an  influential  family,  and  having  been  a  con- 
spicuous man  of  fashion,  it  made  a  great  noise  when  he 
became  a  Baptist  preacher,  and  the  crowds  who  came  to 
hear  him  have  always  been  deeply  impressed,  and  great 
numbers  of  them  converted.  He  has  a  young  nephew, 
John  Marshall,  who  will  in  coming  years  be  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  a  new  nation.  Lewis  Lunsford,  near  Freder- 
icksburg,  is  only  twenty-two  years  old,  but  began  to 
preach  five  years  ago,  being  called  "  the  wonderful  boy," 
and  his  preaching  attended  by  great  crowds.  With  all 
this,  and  while  he  must  have  been  conscious  of  possess- 
ing extraordinary  talents,  he  has  not  been  spoiled,  but  is 
full  of  humility  and  devotion.  But  the  time  would  fail 
to  tell  of  Picket,  Conner,  Williams,  Taylor,  the  brothers 
Craig,  Courtenay,  Koontz,  Garnett,  Webber,  and  many 
more  of  these  promising  young  men,  who  have,  in  1774, 
recently  entered  upon  the  ministry  in  Virginia. 

We  know  of  similar  men  in  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia.  Edmund  Botsford,  a  young  English  soldier, 
came  to  Charleston  some  years  ago,  was  converted  under 
the  ministry  of  Oliver  Hart,  and  for  the  last  three  years 
has  been  preaching  with  great  acceptance  in  the  south- 


JWFH1RD  COLLEGE  LIBHAtt 


„ 


•234     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

western  part  of  the  State,  until  in  May,  1774,  he  moved 
across  into  Georgia,  whence  we  know  that  he  will,  after 
some  years,  return  to  spend  his  useful  life  in  South  Car- 
olina. Richard  Furman,  clarum  et  venerabile  nomen,  is 
now  nineteen  years  old.  His  father,  a  surveyor  at  the 
High  Hills  of  Santee,  has  carefully  taught  him  mathe- 
matics and  the  Bible.  Uncommonly  mature  in  intellect 
and  piety,  he  began  to  preach  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
Some  youths  of  the  same  age  tried  all  the  arts  of  insult- 
ing ridicule,  but  without  seeming  to  move  him  at  all ; 
his  father  earnestly  strove  to  dissuade  him,  being  anx- 
ious that  he  should  become  a  lawyer,  and  fearful  that 
he  was  carried  away  by  temporary  excitement ;  but  he 
respectfully  urged  an  irresistible  feeling  of  duty.  Soon 
invitations  came  to  visit  destitute  places  in  the  country 
around,  and  he  has  been  preaching  far  and  near.  Tall 
and  handsome,  serious  and  dignified  even  in  youth,  his 
grave  and  impressive  eloquence  commands  the  attention 
of  young  and  old,  and  men  can  see  that  he  will  be  a 
prince  and  a  great  man  in  Israel.  Abraham  Marshall, 
son  of  the  Daniel  Marshall  we  spoke  of,  is  living 
with  his  father  in  Georgia,  aged  twenty-six,  and  has 
been  preaching  several  years.  His  educational  advan- 
tages were  confined  to  forty  days  at  an  "old  field 
school ; "  but  his  native  gifts  of  mind,  his  athletic  frame 
and  noble  voice,  his  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  of  the 
human  heart,  make  him  a  highly  effective  and  promising 
young  preacher. 

In  Philadelphia  we  find  William  Rogers,  a  native  of 
Newport  and  graduate  of  Rhode  Island  College,  who 
began  to  preach  three  years  ago,  and  for  two  years  has 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     235 

been  pastor  of  the  Philadelphia  Church — a  young  man 
of  fine  gifts  and  culture,  and  refined  manners,  very 
useful  as  a  preacher,  and  destined  to  distinction  as  a 
professor.  Burgess  Allison,  of  New  Jersey,  has  been 
preaching,  in  fact,  though  not  formally,  since  the  age  of 
sixteen,  and  now,  at  twenty-one,  is  studying  classics  and 
theology  with  Dr.  Samuel  Jones,  near  Philadelphia. 
He  is  fond  of  music  and  painting,  and  has  great  mechan- 
ical ingenuity,  and  with  his  singular  good  sense  is  likely 
to  turn  out  a  useful  preacher  and  teacher,  and  a  distin- 
guished man  of  science.  Thomas  Ustick,  a  native  of 
New  York,  is  also  twenty-one  years  old,  was  baptized 
at  thirteen,  and  graduated  at  Rhode  Island  College,  has 
been  teaching  school  in  New  York  and  studying  for  the 
ministry,  and  in  this  year  has  begun  to  preach.  Modest, 
gentle,  devoted  and  diligent,  he  promises  to  be  very 
useful. 

In  New  England,  likewise,  we  hear  of  several  very 
promising  young  men.  Silas  Burrows,  of  Connecticut, 
has  been  preaching  nine  years.  Without  much  educa- 
tion, he  is  a  man  of  good  sense  and  the  deepest  feeling, 
and  is  wonderfully  gifted  in  prayer  and  exhortation. 
Charles  Thompson,  a  native  of  New  Jersey,  belonged  to 
the  first  graduating  class  of  Rhode  Island  College,  five 
years  ago,  and  for  the  past  four  years  has  been  pastor  at 
Warren,  R.  I.  Vigorous  in  intellect,  and  very  diligent 
in  study,  with  a  fine  figure  and  magnificent  voice,  full 
of  tender  pathos  and  of  lofty  passion,  and  devoted  to  his 
work,  he  is  a  young  man  of  mark.  His  classmate  at 
college,  William  Williams,  of  Welsh  descent,  was  bap- 
tized three  years  ago  by  Thompson,  at  Warren,  and  li- 


236     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

censed  to  preach,  and  in  connection  with  the  ministry 
will  become  famous  in  Massachusetts  as  a  teacher. 

It  has  seemed  a  long  list,  of  older  and  middle-aged 
and  young  Baptist  ministers,  who  were  living  in  1774. 
Yet  it  has  been  made  short  by  reluctantly  omitting 
names  well  worthy  to  be  known  and  honored. 

And  there  are  youths  who  have  not  yet  entered  the 
ministry,  but  will  one  day  be  heard  of.  John  Leland, 
twenty-one  years  old,  was  baptized  in  June,  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Thomas  Baldwin,  of  the  same  age,  is  living 
in  Connecticut,  a  diligent  student,  but  not  yet  a  Chris- 
tian. Silas  Mercer,  in  Georgia,  is  twenty-nine  years  old ; 
originally  an  Episcopalian,  he  has  become  a  Baptist  in 
sentiment,  but  will  not  be  baptized  until  next  year. 
Henry  Holcombe  is  a  boy  of  twelve  years,  and  his 
father  has  recently  removed  with  him  from  Virginia  to 
South  Carolina.  Jonathan  Maxcy  is  six  years  old,  in 
Massachusetts,  a  very  precocious  child,  who  will  not  die 
early.  Robert  B.  Semple  is  five  years  old,  in  King  and 
Queen.  Andrew  Broaddus  is  four  years  old,  in  Caro- 
line County,  Va.,  and  his  father,  a  zealous  member  of 
the  Establishment,  designs  that  his  son  shall  be  a  cler- 
gyman. 

Glance  a  moment,  too,  across  the  water.  Whitefield 
died  four  years  ago.  Wesley,  though  over  seventy,  has 
many  years  of  work  in  him  still.  Of  the  English  Bap- 
tists, Dr.  Gill,  the  great  Talmudical  scholar,  author  of  a 
giant  commentary  on  the  whole  Bible,  an  elaborate  Sys- 
tematic Theology  and  many  other  works,  and  yet  all 
his  life  a  hard-working  pastor,  died  three  years  since  in 
London.  Robert  Robinson,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine, 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     237 

is  already  a  well-known  author,  an  omnivorous  reader, 
and  a  highly  popular  preacher  under  the  shadow  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  Stennett  and  Beddorne, 
authors  of  so  many  excellent  hymns,  are  in  their  prime. 
Andrew  Fuller  is  twenty  years  old,  having  been  bap- 
tized at  sixteen,  and  after  several  years  of  providential 
leading  towards  the  ministry,  has  just  begun  to  preach 
regularly.  Robert  Hall,  son  of  an  able  and  honored 
minister  of  the  same  name,  is  ten  years  old,  and  loves, 
when  out  of  school,  to  read  over  and  over  again  such 
books  as  Edwards  on  the  Will  and  Butler's  Analogy. 

Let  us  now  single  out  for  brief  observation  some 
points  in  the  opinions  and  practices  of  American  Bap- 
tist ministers  in  1774. 

1.  These  men  felt  themselves  inwardly  called  to  the 
ministry.     Some  of  them  indulged  wildly  enthusiastic 
notions  as  to  the  nature  and  evidences  of  this  call,  but 
at  bottom  it  was  a  thoroughly  correct  conception  which 
prevailed  among  them.     And  on  this  account  it  is  not 
well  to  speak  of  the  ministry  as  a  profession.      One 
ought   not  to  choose  the  ministry  at  all  as  he  might 
choose  to  be  a  lawyer,  physician,  teacher  or  editor,  but  it 
ought  to  be  entered  upon  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  God 
and  man.     We  are  not  claiming  any  special  sanctity  for 
the  pursuit  itself  as  compared  with  the  professions,  but 
only  urging  the  importance  of  carefully  avoiding  the 
notion  that  to  enter  upon  the  ministry  is  merely  "  mak- 
ing choice  of  a  profession." 

2.  They  endured  great  hardships  in  the  prosecution  of 
their  work.     Frequent  and  immensely  long  journeys  on 
horseback,  through  thinly-settled  districts,  devoid    of 


238     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

comforts,  were  taken  by  almost  all  the  pastors  in  their 
evangelizing  labors,  and  burning  zeal  often  impelled 
them  to  severer  toils  than  they  were  able  to  bear.  Besides, 
there  was  not  seldom  persecution,  involving  indignities, 
discomforts  and  sometimes  positive  sufferings.  Many  of 
us  are  familiar  with  the  story  of  such  persecutions  in 
Virginia  ;  but  they  began  far  earlier  in  Massachusetts, 
and  were  violent  there  at  the  time  of  which  we  speak, 
the  Cavalier  and  the  Puritan  establishments  being 
equally  harsh  and  cruel.  The  Baptists  are  one  of  the 
few  religious  denominations  that  have  never  persecuted. 
We  cannot  say  they  have  been  personally  too  good,  see- 
ing that  some  of  them  have  shown  great  bitterness  to- 
wards other  religionists  and  even  towards  their  own 
brethren  who  differed  from  them ;  but  their  immemorial 
principle  of  opposition  to  all  union  of  church  and  state 
has.  always  made  it  impossible  that  they  should  per- 
secute. In  so  doing  they  would  at  once  cease  to  be 
Baptists. 

These  hardships,  from  persecution  and  from  minister- 
ial labor,  often  told  upon  health.  Many  suppose  that 
the  frequent  deaths  from  paralysis,  for  instance,  are  a 
peculiarity  of  pur  times.  But  among  the  men  we  have 
been  speaking  of  it  is  mentioned  that  Backus,  Alden, 
Gano,  Harriss,  Stillman  and  Manning  all  died  of  par- 
alytic affections.  True,  these  had  all  passed  through  the 
long  agony  of  the  Revolution. 

3.  Many  of  our  brethren  of  that  day  erred  about 
ministerial  support.  What  they  called  the  "hireling 
ministry  "  of  the  establishments  was  an  abomination  to 
them,  and  they  frequently  went  to  the  opposite  extreme, 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     239 

some  of  them  even  proclaiming  that  they  wished  no  contri- 
butions for  their  support ;  and  not  being  wise  enough  to 
see  and  explain,  like  the  apostle  Paul,  the  difference  be- 
tween the  course  which  for  temporary  reasons  they  pur- 
sued, and  the  general  right  of  ministers  to  be  supported. 
Their  undiscriniinating  teachings  were  but  too  accept- 
able to  human  selfishness,  and  left  deep-rooted  errors 
which  we  are  still  toiling  to  eradicate. 

4.  Our  ministers,  in  1774,  were  in  general  heartily  in 
favor  of  ministerial  education,  and  many  of  them  were 
themselves  highly  educated  men.  This  last  had  been 
true  from  the  beginning.  Hansard  Knollys  and  Roger 
Williams  had  both  been  clergymen  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  educated  at  the  English  universities,  anjl 
John  Clarke  was  a  diligent  student  of  the  original 
Scriptures.  In  the  eighteenth  century  Elisha  Callender 
was  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  Samuel  Jones  and  the 
younger  John  Davis  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia, 
President  Manning  and  Hezekiah  Smith,  of  Princeton, 
and  Charles  Thompson,  William  Williams,  Thomas  Us- 
tick  and  William  Rogers,  of  Rhode  Island  College.  A 
number  of  others,  though  not  college  graduates,  were 
diligent  students  and  really  well  educated  ;  for  example, 
Valentine  Wightman,  Thurston,  Kinnersley,  Gano,  Abel 
Morgan  (senior  and  junior),  Morgan  Edwards,  David 
Jones,  David  Thomas,  Oliver  Hart,  Stillman  and  Fur- 
man,  several  of  whom  were  eminent  for  their  general 
and  theological  attainments  and  teachers  of  others.  The 
only  men  we  have  spoken  of  who  became  leading  min- 
isters without  being  what  we  might  fairly  call  educated, 
were  Isaac  Backus  and  Silas  Barrows,  Shubael  StearnSj 


240     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

Daniel  Marshall  and  his  son  Abraham,  Samuel  Harriss 
and  some  of  the  younger  men  in  Virginia,  and  Edmund 
Botsford ;  and  some  of  these  were  highly  intelligent  and 
well-informed.  Great  interest  was  also  shown  in  insti- 
tutions for  higher  education.  An  English  Baptist  mer- 
chant, Thomas  Hollis,  gave  a  large  donation  to  Harvard 
College  to  found  a  professorship,  about  1720.  Besides 
the  famous  Hopewell  School  in  New  Jersey,  established 
by  Isaac  Eaton  with  express  reference  to  the  preparation 
of  young  men  for  the  ministry,  and  which  we  have  had 
occasion  to  mention  so  often,  several  high  schools,  con- 
ducted by  Baptists,  are  known  to  us  as  in  existence  at  the 
time.  Rhode  Island  College  (Brown  University),  es- 
tablished in  1764,  awakened  the  liveliest  interest  among 
the  Baptists  everywhere.  The  Pennsylvanians,  in  fact, 
claimed  to  have  originated  the  movement.  The  college 
was  located  in  Rhode  Island  because  there  only  was 
there  absolute  religious  liberty.  It  received  contributions 
of  money,  soon  after  its  establishment,  from  Virginia 
and  South  Carolina,  as  well  as  from  New  England  and 
the  Middle  Colonies.  We  find  the  associations  also  early 
expressing  interest  in  ministerial  education.  At  the 
Philadelphia  Association,  in  1722,  "it  was  proposed  by 
the  churches  to  make  inquiry  among  themselves  if  they 
have  any  young  persons  hopeful  for  the  ministry  and 
inclinable  for  learning,  and  if  they  have  to  give  notice  of 
it  to  Mr.  Abel  Morgan,  that  he  might  recommend  such 
to  the  academy,  on  Mr.  Hollis  his  account."  Mr.  Hol- 
lis, besides  endowing  the  professorship  in  Harvard,  had 
apparently  authorized  Abel  Morgan  to  send  young  men 
preparing  for  the  ministry  to  the  academy  in  Philadel- 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     241 

phia,  and  look  to  him  for  the  money.  The  association 
wished  to  co-operate  in  this,  and  the  rather  quaint  phrase 
of  their  minutes  is  worth  remembering, — "  Any  young 
persons  hopeful  for  the  ministry  and  inclinable  for  learn- 
ing." In  1756  the  Charleston  Association,  South  Caro- 
lina, recommended  that  the  churches  raise  "  a  fund  to 
furnish  suitable  candidates  for  the  ministry  with  a  com- 
petent share  of  learning."  And  we  have  seen  that  in 
the  previous  year,  1755,  a  society  had  been  formed  for 
that  purpose  by  the  church  in  Charleston,  which  aided 
Stillman,  Botsford  and  others  in  pursuing  studies  for 
the  ministry,  Oliver  Hart  being  their  instructor  in 
theology. 

But  while  in  so  many  ways  showing  that  they  valued, 
and  striving  to  promote,  the  education  of  the  ministry, 
our  brethren  were  never  disposed  to  confine  the  office  to 
those  who  had  passed  through  any  specified  course  of 
study.  They  believed  that  God  calls  men  to  become 
preachers  who  have  not  had,  cannot  obtain,  opportunities 
of  regular  preparatory  education  ;  and  that  the  only  test 
which  the  churches  ought  to  apply  is  the  practical  one 
suggested  by  the  apostle's  expression,  "apt  to  teach." 
At  the  same  time,  they  generally  maintained  that  every 
minister  ought  to  gain  all  the  knowledge  he  can.  But  a 
hundred  years  ago  there  was  among  the  Baptists  in  some 
quarters  a  disposition  to  underrate  general  education  in 
ministers,  arising  principally  from  two  causes.  First, 
the  Congregational  and  Episcopal  establishments  had 
both  shown  a  strong  tendency  to  treat  a  course  of  edu- 
cation as  not  only  an  indispensable,  but  the  only  requisite 
preparation  for  preaching,  many  of  their  ministers  making 
16 


242     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

no  pretension  to  an  inward  call,  and  some  of  them  not 
even  to  personal  piety.  The  Congregationalist  Separ- 
ates and  the  Baptists,  opposing  themselves  strongly  to 
this,  naturally  tended  toward  the  opposite  extreme,  mak- 
ing piety  and  the  inward  call  everything,  and  caring 
little  for  the  general  and  theological  education  which  was 
associated  in  their  minds  with  so  many  unspiritual,  and 
not  a  few  immoral,  clergymen.  Secondly,  the  country 
was  new ;  the  people  themselves  were  in  general  quite 
uneducated,  sympathizing  most  strongly  with  preachers 
who  were  but  little  superior  to  themselves  in  general 
culture  ;  and  many  of  those  among  them  who  were  effi- 
cient in  other  intellectual  callings  were  self-taught  men. 
These  last  considerations,  to  some  extent,  still  hold  good 
in  large  portions  of  our  country.  The  masses  are  still 
comparatively  ignorant,  and  men  who  are  even  partially 
educated  must  take  great  care  or  they  will  fail  to  have 
the  complete  sympathy  of  this  important  class  of  their 
hearers.  Alas!  for  the  education, of  ministers  of  Jesus 
if  it  ceases  to  be  true  that  the  common  people  hear  them 
gladly.  And  in  a  country  where  so  many  of  the  ablest 
and  most  successful  statesmen,  lawyers,  physicians, 
teachers,  journalists  have  had  no  regular  education,  there 
is  a  great  want  of  propriety  in  requiring  that  no  one 
shall  be  a  preacher  who  has  not  gone  through  a  certain 
fixed  course  of  study.  But  it  is  proper  to  insist  that 
every  minister,  as  well  as  every  other  who  aspires  to  in- 
struct his  fellow- men,  must  in  youth  and  in  age  be  a 
learner,  a  diligent  student. 

One  thing  our  brethren  have  always  expected  and 
required, — that  the  minister,  whatever  else  he  knows  or 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     243 

does  not  know,  shall  study  the  Bible.  To  explain  and 
impress  the  teachings  of  the  Bible  is  his  great  business. 
It  is  very  desirable  for  the  lawyer  to  know  classics  and 
history,  but  necessary  that  he  know  law.  It  is  highly 
useful  for  the  physician  to  know  psychology,  but  indis- 
pensable to  know  medicine.  The  teacher  of  mathemat- 
ics is  much  profited  by  classical  training;  but  he  can  do 
nothing  unless  he  is  acquainted  with  mathematics.  And 
so  the  minister  of  the  gospel  will  find  all  knowledge 
useful,  and  general  training  of  mind  eminently  desira- 
ble ;  but  the  Bible  he  must  know.  And  how  much  it 
means  to  know  the  Bible ! 

Let  us  add  that  a  large  proportion  of  these  ministers 
were  highly  educated  in  another  sense:  they  had  the 
spirit,  habits  and  manners  of  gentlemen.  If  it  is  not 
important  for  a  preacher  and  pastor  to  be  a  gentleman, 
for  whom  is  it  important?  It  is,  in  this  respect,  a  great 
privilege  to  have  been  reared  in  refined  homes.  But  as 
Henry  Clay  and  others  of  our  American  statesmen,  so 
have  many  of  our  ministers  shown  that  a  man  may 
come  up  from  very  inferior  advantages,  and  by  force  of 
native  delicacy  and  generosity  of  feeling,  and  by  dili- 
gent use  of  the  best  social  opportunities,  may  become  a 
noble  gentleman. 

5.  Finally,  notice  the  character  of  their  preaching. 
It  was  eminently  Biblical.  Whether  learned  in  other 
things  or  not,  they  all,  as  we  have  said,  tried  to  know 
the  Bible.  Those  ignorant  of  Hebrew  and  Greek  were 
yet  most  diligent,  loving  and  life-long  students  of  the 
English  Bible.  And  some  who  had  read  few  other 
books  were  yet  "  mighty  in  the  Scriptures,"  often  teach- 


244     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

ing  opposers  the  truth  of  the  old  adage :  "  Beware  of  the 
man  of  one  book."  They  were  familiar  with  the  text 
of  Scripture,  able  to  turn  to  any  passage  they  wanted 
without  a  concordance,  committing  to  memory  long  pas- 
sages, and  some  of  them  whole  books  of  the  Bible.  It 
is  an  abuse  of  our  multiplied  helps  if  we  fail  to  gain 
like  loving  familiarity  with  the  sacred  <  text.  There  is 
point  in  the  words  of  an  Elizabethan  poet : 

I  would  I  were  an  excellent  divine, 

That  had  the  Bible  at  my  fingers'  ends; 

That  men  might  hear  out  of  this  mouth  of  mine 
How  God  doth  make  his  enemies  his  friends. 

And  the  preachers  of  whom  we  speak  used  their  ready 
knowledge  of  Scripture  in  this  way,  both  publicly  and 
privately,  whether  men  would  hear  or  whether  they 
would  forbear.  "  May  it  please  your  worship,"  said  an 
irate  lawyer  in  Virginia,  "  these  men  are  great  disturb- 
ers of  the  peace ;  they  cannot  meet  a  man  on  the  road 
but  what  they  ram  a  text  of  Scripture  down  his  throat." 
Their  preaching  was  also  eminently  doctrinal.  The 
great  Scripture  doctrines  of  depravity,  atonement  and 
regeneration  were  almost  unknown  to  many  of  their 
hearers,  and  disputed  by  many  others.  And  so  the 
preacher  felt  called  continually  to  preach  these  and  the 
related  doctrines,  proving  and  enforcing  them  by  liberal 
quotations  from  the  text  of  Scripture.  Whenever  men 
cease  to  preach  these  great  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  draw- 
ing them  directly  from  the  fountain  head,  believing 
something  definite,  knowing  what  they  believe  and  why 
they  believe  it,  and  how  to  prove  it  from  the  Inspired 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     245 

Word,  then  the  pulpit  soon  loses  its  power.  Their  preach- 
ing was,  at  the  same  time,  eminently  experimental.  It  was 
very  common  for  the  preacher  to  tell  the  exercises  of  his 
mind  at  the  time  of  his  conversion.  When  modestly  and 
wisely  done,  as  it  has  been  done  by  Bunyan,  Augustine, 
Paul,  this  can  never  fail  to  be  full  of  interest  and  impres- 
siveness.  The  Washingtonian  temperance  speakers  car- 
ried too  far  their  narratives  of  a  drunkard's  experience, 
and  so  may  our  old  preachers  have  sometimes  gone  too 
far  with  their  experience-telling ;  but  the  thing  is  natu- 
ral and  lawful,  and  is  mighty,  if  fitly  managed. 

As  to  their  manner  of  preaching,  but  little  need  be 
said.  They  had  all  the  methods  of  preparation  and 
delivery  which  we  have,  and  differed  about  them  as  we 
do.  Some  of  them,  particularly  of  those  who  traveled 
widely  and  preached  much  in  the  open  air — and  chiefly, 
it  would  appear,  among  the  Separates — acquired  certain 
offensive  mannerisms  of  delivery,  the  most  striking  of 
which  was  a  peculiarity  of  tone,  commonly  called  the 
"  holy  whine,"  which  may  still  be  heard  in  some  very 
ignorant  preachers  in  certain  parts  of  the  country.  This 
unpleasing  and,  to  some  persons,  very  ridiculous  prac- 
tice had  a  natural  origin.  When  men  spoke  to  crowds 
in  the  open  air,  on  a  high  key,  with  great  excitement 
for  a  long  time,  the  over-strained  voice  would  relieve 
itself  by  rising  and  falling,  as  a  person  tired  of  standing 
will  frequently  change  position.  This  soon  became  a 
habit  with  such  men,  and  then  would  be  imitated  by 
others,  being  regarded  as  the  appropriate  expression  of 
excited  feeling.  The  same  causes  produce  the  same 
sing-song  tone  in  the  loud  cries  of  street-vendors  in  our 


\ 

246     AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774. 

cities.  But  the  whine  of  the  preacher,  associated  for 
many  ignorant  hearers  with  seasons  of  impassioned  ap- 
peal from  the  pulpit,  and  of  deep  feeling  on  their  own 
part,  has  become  a  musical  accompaniment  which  grati- 
fies and  impresses  them,  and,  like  a  tune  we  remember 
from  childhood,  revives  "  the  memory  of  joys  that  are 
past,  pleasant  and  mournful."  Why  should  we  wonder 
at  all  this?  Extremes  meet.  What  is  the  intoning, 
which  modern  ritualists  in  this  country  so  much  admire, 
but  just  another  species  of  holy  whine,  originating  long 
centuries  ago  in  very  similar  natural  causes  to  those  just 
stated,  and  impressive  to  some  people  now  by  reason  of 
its  association  with  what  is  old  and  venerable  in  devo- 
tion? If  any  one  doubts  that  it  is  the  same  thing,  let 
him  hear  the  intoning  in  the  Armenian  Convent  Church 
at  Jerusalem. 

It  suffices  to  add  that  the  preachers  of  that  day  de- 
pended much  on  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  give  them 
liberty  in  speaking,  and  the  hearts  of  their  hearers. 
Some  of  them  carried  this  to  an  enthusiastic  extreme. 
But  every  truth  is  perverted  by  somebody.  And  it  is 
a  great  fundamental  truth,  to  which  we  must  cling,  that 
God  will  help  us  in  preaching  and  himself  "  giveth  the 
increase." 

The  American  Baptist  ministers  of  one  hundred  years 
ago  labored  not  in  vain.  The  denomination  was  grow- 
ing rapidly  in  the  years  before  the  Revolution,  and  it  has 
continued  to  grow.  In  1774  the  total  membership  of 
Baptist  churches  throughout  the  colonies  is  estimated  to 
have  been  not  more  than  (30,000)  thirty  thousand,  and 
many  think  this  estimate  too  high.  Thus  the  member- 


AMERICAN  BAPTIST  MINISTRY  OF  A.D.  1774.     247 

ship  was  less  than  one  per  cent,  of  the  population.  In 
1884  we  had  in  the  United  States  of  regular  Baptists, 
exclusive  of  cognate  outlying  bodies,  at  least  (2,500,000) 
two  million  five  hundred  thousand  members,  which  is 
nearly  five  per  cent,  of  the  population.  More  than  one- 
half  of  our  present  population  is  of  German,  Irish, 
French,  Italian  or  Spanish  descent,  and  thus  originally 
altogether  averse  to  any  such  opinions  as  ours  ;  there  has 
been  no  Baptist  immigration  except  from  England  and 
Wales,  and  to  a  small  extent  from  Scotland  ;  yet  in  the 
face  of  all  this  we  have  an  increase  in  our  membership 
from  one  per  cent,  to  five  per  cent,  of  the  population, 
and  the  persons  more  attached  to  the  Baptists  than  any 
other  persuasion  must  be  from  one-fifth  to  one-fourth  of 
the  entire  population.  This  shows  that  the  work  of  our 
fathers'  hands  has  been  blessed. 

And  yet  how  many  of  these  church  members  are  com- 
paratively useless.  And  throughout  the  country  what 
growing  masses  of  noisy  infidelity — what  a  spread  of 
irreligion  and  corrupted  Christianity,  of  immorality  and 
vice,  of  political  corruption  and  social  pollution  !  Not 
only  the  example  of  the  past  age,  but  the  pressing  needs 
of  our  own  age,  call  us  to  diligent,  self-denying,  devoted 
labor.  And  are  we  ambitious  ?  Do  we  ask  whether  a 
hundred  years  to  come  men  will  be  searching  our  his- 
tory, repeating  our  names,  rejoicing  in  our  work  ?  It 
matters  little,  for  "  they  that  are  wise  shall  shine  as  the 
brightness  of  the  firmament,  and  they  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever."  Nay, 
it  matters  not  at  all,  if  only  we  can  hear  at  last  that 
thrilling  word,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant, 
enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


XV. 

COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOB  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

THOSE  sprightly,  growing  boys  of  yours,  what  are 
you  going  to  do  about  their  education?  Let  us 
think  a  little  upon  that  question.  Even  if  your  mind  is 
partly  made  up,  there  is  no  harm  in  listening  to  the 
notions  of  a  man  who  has  spent  his  life  as  an  educator ; 
of  course  you  will  decide  for  yourself  all  the  same. 

You  have  been  looking  about  for  now  a  good  many 
years,  and  have  pretty  much  concluded  that  it  is  desira- 
ble for  those  who  are  to  be  professional  men  to  go  to 
college.  But  your  son  will  not  enter  a  profession ;  he 
is  going  to  spend  his  life  in  business.  I  ask, 

HOW   DO   YOU   KNOW? 

You  may  have  a  very  definite  purpose  on  the  subject, 
and  so  may  he;  but  how  can  you  be  sure?  Inquire 
concerning  the  men  who  have  succeeded  well  in  the  sev- 
eral professions,  and  it  will  be  very  curious  to  see  how 
small, a  proportion  of  them,  at  the  age  of  sixteen  or 
eighteen,  had  any  notion  of  spending  their  lives  in  the 
professions  they  finally  adopted.  Parents  and  teachers 
ofter  err  egregiously  in  their  judgment  as  to  what  a 
youth  was  born  for.  It  is  said,  that  when  Mr.  Moody 
first  spoke  in  a  prayer-meeting,  his  pastor  advised  him 
not  to  attempt  that  again,  as  he  had  evidently  no  talent 
248 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     249 

for  public  speaking;  and  now,  let  the  crowds  that 
hear  his  preaching  tell,  and  the  thousands  of  converts. 
And  the  lad  himself  will  often  err  likewise.  At  one 
period  of  my  own  boyhood  I  read  Cooper's  novels,  of 
which  my  father  was  very  fond,  until  I  became  enam- 
ored of  Indian  life,  and  fully  resolved  that  so  soon  as  I 
became  "  a  man,"  I  would  go  to  the  Missouri  Territory 
(as  they  used  to  call  it),  among  the  Blackfoot  Indians,  get 
to  be  a  great  hunter  and  fighter,  marry  a  squaw,  the 
daughter  of  an  old  chief,  and  succeed  him  as  chief  of 
the  tribe,  and  live  and  die  in  paint  and  feathers.  Would 
any  sensible  father  and  mother  have  said,  The  boy  has 
got  his  head  on  that;  it  shows  the  native  bent  of  his 
genius,  and  so  there  is  no  use  in  sending  him  to  board- 
ing-school? How  do  you  know,  then,  and  how  does 
your  son  know,  though  he  may  have  no  such  silly  fancies 
as  the  boy  just  mentioned,  what  is  his  destined  calling 
for  life  ?  And  especially  is  this  true  as  to  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel.  If  a  man  must  be  divinely  called  to  this  work, 
that  will  often  happen  much  later  in  life  than  the  pro- 
per time  for  entering  college. 

I  am  very  glad  you  hold  that  the  professional  men  of 
the  future  ought,  in  general,  to  be  thoroughly  educated. 
Even  in  the  past,  the  most  eminent  men  have  much  more 
frequently  had  this  advantage  than  most  persons  im- 
agine. Of  the  leading  Baptist  ministers  in  America  a 
hundred  years  ago,  quite  a  number  had  been  to  college, 
and  nearly  all  the  rest  were  laborious  students.  Or 
take  our  statesmen.  America  has  been  the  Paradise 
of  what  we  call  self-made  men.  In  every  calling  such 
men  came  to  the  front,  and  in  politics  there  was  long  a 


250     COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

decided  advantage  in  being  a  self-made  man.  The  frac- 
tion of  Americans  who  have  been  to  college  is  ex- 
tremely small ;  how  large,  in  comparison,  is  the  fraction 
of  leading  statesmen  who  were  college  bred,  even  in 
this  "new  country,"  with  a  prejudice  in  favor  of  the 
other  class.  Look  at  Congress,  or  the  Legislature  of 
this  State,  at  any  time  during  the  last  hundred  years,  or 
at  the  present  day,  and  the  comparison  of  these  two  frac- 
tions will  be  very  suggestive.  And  then  we  must  stop 
calling  ours  a  new  country.  Things  are  rapidly  chang- 
ing. In  medicine  and  law  it  will,  in  less  than  fifty 
years,  be  required  by  public  opinion  here,  as  it  is  now  in 
Europe,  that  the  acceptable  practitioner  shall  have  a  good 
general  education  and  a  thorough  training  in  his  pro- 
fession. The  editorial  profession,  which  is  looming  up 
into  such  importance,  greatly  needs  thorough  education, 
in  order  to  breadth  of  view  and  sympathy  with  all  truth, 
in  order  to  correct  handling  of  the  ten  thousand  sub- 
jects which  journalists  have  to  treat,  and  in  order  that 
they  may  cease  butchering  the  English  language  and 
shocking  literary  taste  in  the  frightful  fashion  to  which, 
with  few  exceptions,  they  are  now  accustomed.  And 
teachers,  what  profession  is  more  important  than  this? 
What  greater  need  is  there  among  us — except  the  need 
of  Christian  morality — than  of  really  well-qualified 
teachers?  Everybody  believes  in  schools  for  children. 
But  education  has  to  work  from  above  downwards. 
Where  shall  we  get  educated  teachers,  unless  people 
more  generally  send  their  sons  to  our  higher  schools? 
As  to  our  ministers,  I  think  the  Baptists  have  been 
quite  right  in  encouraging  some  uneducated  men  .to 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     251 

preach.  It  was  a  necessity,  else  the  masses  would 
never  have  been  reached ;  for  well-educated  men  were 
too  few,  and  the  illiterate  could  often  command  a  fuller 
sympathy.  A  like  necessity  will  still  exist,  but  it  will 
be  constantly  diminishing.  An  increasingly  large  pro- 
portion of  our  ministers  must  be  thoroughly  educated 
men,  or  Baptists  will  not  keep  pace  with  the  times. 
But,  coming  back  to  your  son, 

SUPPOSE    HE   DOES 

spend  his  life  as  a  man  of  business,  an  agriculturist, 
merchant,  manufacture^  or  the  like.  I  earnestly  urge 
that  in  such  a  business  life,  higher  education,  or  what 
we  commonly  call  college  education,  will  be  of  great 
advantage  to  him.  So  many  doubt  this,  deny,  even 
ridicule  the  idea,  that  I  beg  your  special  attention. 
Good  and  generous  men,  all  over  the  land,  are  even 
giving  their  money  to  endow  colleges  to  educate  other 
people's  sons,  and  then  entirely  failing  to  send  their 
own  sons  to  them.  Now,  I  think,  there  is  no  little 
popular  error  about  this  something  we  call  education, 
partly  due  to  the  wrong  methods  pursued  and  wrong 
ideas  put  forth  by  some  professed  educators.  Pray  con- 
sider, then, 

WHAT   DO   WE   MEAN    BY    EDUCATION? 

This  term  is  generally  used  among  us  in  quite  too 
narrow  a  sense.  Thus,  we  hear  a  great  deal  about 
"educated  men"  and  "self-educated  men."  But;,  in  one 
sense,  every  man  is  self-educated  who  is  ever  really  edu- 
cated at  all.  It  is  only  in  the  voluntary  exertion  of  his 


252    COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

mental  powers  that  he  gains  development  and  discipline 
of  these  powers.  John  Randolph  said  :  "  Put  a  block- 
head through  college,  and  the  more  books  you  pile  on 
his  head  the  bigger  blockhead  he  will  be."  A  man  has 
to  educate  himself,  no  matter  how  numerous  and  advan- 
tageous his  helps.  And  then,  in  another  sense,  no  man 
is  self-educated.  Even  those  who  never  have  a  teacher, 
if  they  really  become  educated  men,  have  been  educated 
by  books  (teachers  who,  being  dead,  yet  speak),  by  the 
men  with  whom  they  converse,  by  the  events  which 
lead  them  to  think,  which  draw  out  their  powers  into 
active  exercise,  by  the  ideas  which  are  abroad  in  the 
atmosphere  of  their  time.  There  is,  then,  no  such  broad 
difference  between- the  educated  and  the  self-educated  as 
many  suppose. 

Now,  when  can  we  say  that  one  is  an  educated  man  ? 
My  answer  would  make  something  like  the  following 
points :  1.  An  educated  man  is  one  whose  mind  is 
widened  out,  so  that  he  can  take  broad  views,  instead 
of  being  narrow-minded ;  so  that  he  can  see  the  differ- 
ent sides  of  a  question,  or  at  least  can  know  that  all 
questions  have  different  sides.  2.  An  educated  man  is 
one  who  has  the  power  of  patient  thinking;  who  can 
fasten  his  mind  on  a  subject,  and  hold  it  there  while  he 
pleases;  who  can  keep  looking  at  a  subject  till  he  sees 
into  it  and  sees  through  it.  If  anybody  imagines  it 
easy  to  think,  in  this  steady  way,  he  has  not  tried  it 
much.  f  3.  Again,  an  educated  man  is  one  who  has 
sound  judgment,  who  knows  how  to  reason  to  right 
conclusions,  and  so  to  argue  -as  to  convince  others  that 
he  is  right.  4.  And  finally — not  to  speak  now  of  im- 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     253 

agination  and  taste,  important  as  they  are — an  educated 
man  is  one  who  can  express  his  thoughts  clearly  and 
forcibly.  Now,  if  this  be  a  roughly  correct  description 
of  an  educated  man,  there  are  many  among  us  who  de- 
serve that  name,  though  they  never  went  to  college,  and 
some  of  them  went  little  to  school.  Look  at  our  really 
successful  business  men.  You  will  find  that  in  most 
cases  their  minds  are  widened,  so  that  they  can  take 
broad  views.  How  grandly  comprehensive  are  often 
the  views  of  a  great  planter,  merchant,  manufacturer  or 
railroad  man  !  Also,  that  they  can  keep  thinking  of  a 
subject  till  they  see  into  it ;  that  they  can  judge  soundly, 
and  reason  and  argue,  reaching  just  conclusions  them- 
selves, and  convincing  others  that  they  are  right ;  and 
that  they  have  command  of  clear  and  forcible  expres- 
sion. These,  then,  are  really  educated  men. 

But  notice.  They  gain  this  education,  in  the  school 
of  life,  very  slowly  in  most  cases,  and  usually  cannot  be 
called  educated  in  this  sense,  until  they  have  reached  or 
passed  middle  age.  Now  is  it  possible  to  select  certain 
branches  of  knowledge,  and  combine  them  into  such  an 
apparatus  of  mental  training,  that,  by  putting  our  young 
men  through  this,  we  can,  to  a  great  extent,  anticipate 
the  discipline  which  would  be  slowly  gained  in  the 
school  of  life,  can  give  to  the  young  man  of  twenty-one 
or  twenty-five  much  of  that  accuracy  of  thought,  sound- 
ness of  judgment  and  command  of  expression,  which 
otherwise  he  would  not  have  till  he  reaches  fifty  or 
more  ?  Of  course  this  cannot  be  wholly  done,  for  some 
kinds  of  mental  training  can  be  gained  only  by  expe- 
rience and  by  slow  degrees;  but  can  it  be  done  to  a 


254    COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

considerable  extent  ?  Wide  and  varied  experiment  has 
shown  that  it  can  be.  And  precisely  this  is  the  main 
object  of  all  wise  educational  processes.  The  knowledge 
gained  may  or  may  not  be  directly  useful  in  subsequent 
life :  the  main  thing  is  to  educate,  to  give  the  young 
man,  in  a  few  years,  much  of  that  development  and 
strengthening  and  discipline  of  his  principal  faculties, 
that  use  of  himself,  which,  otherwise,  he  would  have 
only  when  almost  an  old  man.  And  remember  that  if, 
in  certain  respects,  we  cannot  anticipate  the  lessons  of 
the  school  of  life,  in  other  respects  we  can  prepare  the 
young  man  to  learn  those  lessons  to  better  purpose  than 
would  otherwise,  for  him,  have  been  possible. 

See,  then,  how  unwise  people  are  when  they  keep 
asking :  "  What  good  will  Latin  and  Astronomy  and 
Metaphysics  do  a  business  man?"  and  keep  saying  that 
our  youth  must  study  only  those  branches  of  knowledge 
that  will  be  "useful."  What  can  be  so  useful  to  a 
young  man  as  to  improve  his  sense,  to  give  him  greater 
power  of  thinking  closely  and  soundly,  and  of  making 
other  people  think  as  he  thinks,  and  do  what  he  wants 
them  to  do  ?  You  wish  your  son  to  be  a  practical  man ; 
but  you  do  not  want  him  to  spend  his  life  as  simply  a 
day-laborer.  Well,  if  he  is  to  rise  above  this,  is  to  ac- 
quire property  and  control  the  labor  of  others  for  his 
advantage,  it  must  be  done  by  sense.  Not  even  indus- 
try and  saving  ways  will  suffice,  unless  he  can  see  into 
things,  judge  wisely  about  complicated  questions  and 
talk  sensibly  to  those  with  whom  he  deals.  No  doubt 
these  powers  depend  partly  on  natural  endowment ;  but, 
then,  they  can  be  greatly  improved  by  education,  and  I 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     255 

insist  that  to  improve  them  is  the  main  object  of  all 
wise  educational  processes.  In  fact,  the  method  of  edu- 
cation is  even  more  important  than  the  material.  A 
superior  teacher  could,  to  a  great  extent,  educate  a  supe- 
rior pupil  with  almost  any  branch  of  knowledge.  But 
certain  subjects,  suitably  combined,  are  found  to  have 
much  greater  educating  power  than  others,  and  on  this 
principle  we  select  and  recommend.  If  some  of  them 
are  also  of  practical  utility,  that  is,  of  course,  very  desi- 
rable. But,  in  very  important  respects,  the  mind  may 
be  better  enlarged,  invigorated,  disciplined  by  subjects 
of  study  which  have  little  to  do  with  practical  life ;  and 
I  repeat  that  the  effect  on  the  mind  itself  is  the  princi- 
pal matter. 

RESULTS  OF  SUCCESS  IN   BUSINESS. 

Besides,  you  do  not  simply  wish  your  son  to  prosper 
in  business,  to  accumulate  property.  Think  of  the  good 
he  is  to  get  from  his  business  success.  He  will  wish  to 
have  a  home,  a  bright  and  sweet  home.  Wealth  alone 
cannot  make  this.  I  am  not  speaking  now  of  the  one 
thing  that  is  needful,  but  consider  how  much  culture 
contributes  to  the  happiness  and  highest  well-being  of  a 
growing  family.  Almost  every  man  who  has  financial 
prosperity  aspires  to  this.  Some  succeed,  notwithstand- 
ing the  lack  of  early  advantages,  but  very  few  under  such 
circumstances  attain  true  and  high  culture.  Many  a 
worthy  gentleman  of  middle  age,  fondly  watching  his 
growing  children,  and  longing  to  inspire  them  with  a 
relish  for  the  delights  of  history,  poetry,  and  popular 
science,  to  see  them  bathe  their  young  minds  in  the 


250     COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

sweet  waters  of  literature,  resolves  winter  after  winter 
that  he  will  read  upon  certain  subjects — buys  a  number 
of  books,  begins,  and  next  summer  remembers  that  he 
has  done  almost  nothing,  and  mourns,  again  and  again, 
that  he  did  not  acquire  reading  habits,  and  a  basis  of 
literary  knowledge,  in  his  youth.  And  sooth  to  say, 
many  of  our  girls  are  now  receiving  a  fairly  good  educa- 
tion, and  women  are  so  quick  in  picking  up  and  turning 
to  account  a  knowledge  of  general  literature,  that  our 
young  men  must  get  a  better  education  than  has  been 
common,  or  they  will  in  many  cases  find  themselves 
unpleasantly  inferior  to  their  wives. 

Still  further,  as  to  your  son,  think  of  the  good  he  is 
to  do  in  life.  Success  in  business  will  give  him  influ- 
ence in  some  respects,  but  how  much  more  influential  he 
will  be,  and  how  much  more  useful  as  a  member  of 
society,  if  he  had  in  youth  a  good  education.  You  have 
known  here  and  there  a  man  prosperous,  intelligent  and 
of  high  character,  who  in  a  country  neighborhood  or  a 
village  was  worth  as  much  as  a  school — he  seemed  to  lift 
up  the  whole  community.  In  our  current  politics  one  of 
the  great  wants  is  that  of  intelligent  leading  citizens. 
There  is  much  humbug  now-a-days  about  reading  and 
writing.  Some  of  our  new-light  philosophers  seem  to 
think  that  if  we  can  only  teach  everybody  to  read  and 
write,  then  the  masses  will  always  vote  wisely  and  do 
right.  But  what  do  they  read  ?  The  fact  is,  the  masses 
need,  and  always  have,  leaders,  to  tell  them  what  to  do ; 
and  the  only  question  is  whether  they  shall  be  led  by 
low  demagogues,  or  persons  not  much  wiser  than  them- 
selves, or  on  the  other  hand  by  men  worthy  to  lead, 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     257 

qualified  to  lead  wisely.  So,  too,  in  our  churches,  the 
most  crying  need  at  present  is  for  an  educated  membership. 
We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  educating  our  minis- 
ters, but  educated  private  members,  of  both  sexes,  are  just 
as  necessary.  These,  where  they  do  exist,  give  interest 
to  Sunday-schools  and  prayer-meetings,  diffuse  correct 
ideas  of  Christian  benevolence,  and  give  sympathetic 
appreciation  and  moral  support  to  an  intelligent  and 
active  pastor.  These  can  meet  in  conversation  the  subtle 
infidelity  which  is  spreading  its  poison  through  all  our 
society,  which  the  pastor  often  declines  to  preach  against 
lest  he  merely  advertise  instead  of  curing,  and  which  is 
seldom  mentioned  to  him  in  private  because  its  advocates 
in  general  do  not  really  wish  to  have  their  errors  cor- 
rected. O  how  much  we  need  a  larger  number  of 
thoroughly  educated  and  truly  devoted  men  and  women 
in  all  the  churches  ! 

DIFFICULTIES    IN   THE   WAY    OF   HIGHER    EDUCATION. 

You  say  you  are  willing  to  send  the  boys  to  school, 
and  want  the  teacher  to  do  the  best  he  can  for  them ; 
but,  when  they  are  pretty  nearly  grown,  you  find  they 
generally  want  to  go  into  business,  and  you  think  they 
are  about  right — go  to  school  while  they  are  boys,  and 
get  to  work  as  soon  as  they  are  men.  But  consider. 
We  have  agreed,  have  we  not,  that  the  mental  conditions 
most  important  for  business  success  are  breadth  of  view, 
power  of  patient  thinking,  sound  judgment.  •  And  I 
have  insisted  that  the  great  object  of  wise  schemes  of 
education  is  to  train  the  mind  in  these  respects.  Now, 
these  powers  cannot  be  trained  till  a  person  is  nearly 
17 


258     COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

grown,  for  the  excellent  reason  that  not  until  then  have 
they  any  considerable  natural  development.  In  a  little 
child,  the  leading  faculty  is  imagination,  and  the  chief 
means  of  teaching  it  is  story-telling.  Everything  must 
be  put  into  that  form,  or,  at  least,  must  be  sweetened 
with  a  story.  If  we  do  not  tell  the  children  stories,  they 
will  make  some  for  themselves  and  tell  them  to  each 
other.  At  the  age  of  ten  or  twelve,  the  leading  faculty 
is  memory.  That  is  the  time  to  store  the  mind  with 
knowledge  of  facts,  explaining  where  it  is  not  too  diffi- 
cult, but  aiming  chiefly  to  lodge  the  facts  themselves 
permanently  in  the  memory.  But  judgment,  in  any 
high  and  broad  sense, — analysis,  generalization,  abstract 
thinking,  reasoning, — these  are,  as  a  rule,  not  much  de- 
veloped until  the  age  of  eighteen  or  twenty.  Of  course, 
then,  it  is  not  until  that  age,  as  a  rule,  that  we  can  begin 
to  give  those  high  mental  powers  any  effective  training. 
A  great  many  efforts  have  been  made  of  late  years  to 
have  boys  anticipate  the  studies  proper  only  to  com- 
parative maturity.  Children  of  a  dozen  years  are  found 
toiling  over  Evidences  of  Christianity,  Rhetoric,  English 
Syntax  —  subjects  which  they  cannot  possibly  under- 
stand. All  this  is  a  grievous  mistake,  though  it  is  a 
well-meant  effort  to  supply  a  felt  want.  These  things 
ought  to  be  learned,  and  others  of  the  same  sort ;  but 
they  can  be  learned,  not  at  the  beginning,  but  only 
towards  the  end  of  "the  teens."  Now  see  what  hap- 
pens. Our  boys  and  girls  go  to  school,  and  perhaps 
learn  well,  during  the  period  when  memory  predomi- 
nates, get  a  useful  knowledge  of  facts  (though  this  might 
be  much  better  managed  than  it  commonly  is),  but  just 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.    259 

when  they  reach  the  age  at  which  we  could  begin  to 
give  them  education  in  the  highest,  broadest  sense — 
education  that  would  really  prepare  them  for  the  duties 
of  life — they  break  away  ;  the  boys  plunge  head  foremost 
into  business,  and  the  girls — well,  they  quit  school ! 
Here  is  an  evil  most  lamentable  and  wide-spread.  Who 
trains  horses  that  way,  or  builds  houses,  or  railways,  or 
raises  crops — laboring  a  long  time  with  the  mere  prep- 
arations, and  stopping  short  just  at  the  time  when  the 
consummation  of  the  undertaking  comes  within  reach? 
What  we  call  "  higher  education "  is  really  the  most 
practical  part  of  the  whole  process ;  and  yet  our  restless 
youths  and  our  thoughtless  parents  neglect  it,  just  be- 
cause, forsooth,  they  are  so  anxious  to  be  practical. 

But,  you  ask,  do  we  expect  all  the  young  men  of  the 
country  to  go  to  school  until  they  are  twenty-five  years 
old  ?  No,  and  we  do  not  expect  all  the  young  men  of 
the  country  to  be  highly  successful  in  business,  or  highly 
influential  and  useful,  as  citizens  or  as  Christians.  Higher 
education  is,  of  course,  not  possible  for  all.  Besides,  if 
college  studies  now  keep  many  till  the  age  of  twenty- 
five,  this  is  usually  because  our  preparatory  schools  and 
our  general  methods  of  training  children  have  been,  for 
the  most  part,  so  poor  and  unsatisfactory.  When  better 
ideas  are  diffused  throughout  society,  when  a  larger 
number  of  good  teachers  are  trained,  and  more  good 
schools  are  established,  then  most  of  our  competent 
young  men  will  be  able  to  complete  a  fair  course  of 
higher  education  by  the  time  they  are  twenty-one  or 
twenty-two. 

You  remind  me  of  another  difficulty,  that  there  is 


260    COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

need  of  some  early  training  for  business  itself.  Cer- 
tainly, one  who  is  to  be  a  farmer  ought  to  work  on  a 
farm  in  his  early  teens,  watching  every  detail  with  a 
boy's  sharp  observation,  and  learning  how  to  do  all 
kinds  of  worlf  himself;  and  he  who  is  to  be  a  merchant 
ought,  while  still  a  boy,  to  hop  counters  and  tie  bun- 
dles, to  keep  accounts,  and  observe  the  quality  of  goods 
and  the  tastes  of  customers.  But  this  can  be  managed 
by  putting  such  boys  to  work  on  Saturdays  and  in  the 
greater  part  of  vacation ;  and  perhaps,  also,  it  might  be 
well,  somewhere  between  thirteen  and  seventeen,  to  keep 
them  at  home  a  year,  and  make  them  buckle  down  to 
steady  labor.  I  could  tell  you  of  men  eminently  suc- 
cessful in  their  callings,  who  were  trained  in  just  this 
way,  with  advantage  to  their  health,  and  certainly  no 
damage  to  their  mental  improvement. 

And  yet  another  difficulty  occurs  to  you.  It  doesn't 
look  reasonable  that  young  fellows  so  different  in  turn 
of  mind,  and  in  their  proposed  callings,  as  the  students 
of  a  college  are,  should  all  be  put  through  exactly  the 
same  course  of  study.  But  remember,  that  the  object  is 
to  develop  and  discipline  faculties  which  all  intelligent 
youths  possess  to  some  considerable  extent,  and  which 
have  to  be  exercised  in  all  callings  alike.  Special  train- 
ing for  particular  pursuits  may  be  distinct,  going  on 
partly  at  the  same  time  with,  and  partly  subsequent  to, 
this  general  training,  which  will  contribute  to  success  in 
any  kind  of  work.  Besides,  most  of  our  colleges  are  be- 
ginning to  provide  for  a  change  of  the  course,  by  making 
certain  studies  elective,  or  even  by  making  the  whole 
course  elective,  so  that  the  studies  of  each  youth  may  be 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.    201 

more  or  less  adapted  to  his  peculiarities  of  mind,  prep- 
aration, or  destined  pursuit. 

OBJECTIONS   TO   COLLEGE   LIFE. 

But  there  is  no  use  in  talking,  you  say,  about  your 
son's  going  to  college.  It  is  too  expensive — you  can't 
afford  it.  Colleges  are  just  intended  for  rich  men's 
sons,  or  those  that  get  their  money  easy  in  some  way ; 
you  made  your  money  by  hard  work,  and  can't  afford 
to  spend  it  so  fast. 

Why,  the  very  object  of  college  endowments  is  to 
cheapen  education,  for  the  sake  of  those  who  are  not 
rich.  If  your  son  were  to  get  instruction  from  a  single  v 
one  of  these  select  professors,  with  his  talents  and  high 
scholarship,  it  would  cost  him  twice  as  much  a  year  as 
his  entire  college  fees.  Rich  men  could  employ  several 
such  instructors  if  they  chose,  but  you  and  I  could 
not.  And  if  our  sons  can  have  the  privilege  of  being 
taught  by  these  professors,  it  is  for  the  reason  that  a 
large  part  of  their  support  is  drawn  from  endowment ; 
and  usually  it  is  a  support  most  meagre  and  unworthy, 
when  we  consider  their  choice  abilities  and  severe  labors. 
In  fact,  college  education  is  one  of  the  cheapest  things 
in  the  country ;  and  we  who  are  comparatively  poor  get 
a  great  bargain  in  it,  a  first-rate  article  for  one-third  the 
cost. 

Ah  !  but  you  didn't  so  much  mean  the  tuition ;  it  is 
the  other  expenses.  Yes,  and  you  begin  with  counting 
all  that  is  spent  for  clothing,  and  forget  that  the  fellow 
would  spend  money  for  clothes  if  he  stayed  at  home. 
If  it  be  said  that  at  home  he  would  only  need  a 

JVUH'URD  GOLLtGL  Llbnwi 


262     COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

Sunday  suit,  and  could  wear  plain  and  cheap  clothes 
all  the  week,  I  answer,  so  he  can  at  college.  If  a  stu- 
dent's general  appearance  and  personal  habits  are  good, 
if  his  hair  and  his  hands,  his  boots  and  his  linen,  are 
always  scrupulously  clean,  and  the  rest  of  his  clothing, 
however  cheap  and  even  coarse,  is  well  brushed  and 
free  from  stains  and  spots,  then,  with  good  manners,  he 
will  be  accounted  a  thoroughly  genteel  young  man,  by 
all  those  whose  opinion  is  worth  regarding,  young  ladies 
included.  Forty  years  ago,  two  young  men  entered  the 
University  of  Virginia,  paying  their  way  with  money 
saved  from  teaching,  and  during  the  first  winter  wear- 
ing plain  jeans  coats  all  the  week,  among  those  aris- 
tocratic and  dressy  youngsters  from  the  Cotton  States. 
Both  found  hearty  welcome  in  the  professors'  families, 
and  formed  choice  friendships  among  the  students,  be- 
sides gaining  unsurpassed  academic  honors ;  and  one  of 
them  is  now  a  distinguished  educator  in  Virginia.  And 
to-day  there  are  students  in  great  number  at  our  colleges 
who  spend  scarcely  a  cent  more  on  their  clothing  than 
they  would  do  in  a  country  home,  and  yet  make  a  good 
appearance,  and  are  respected  and  well  received  in 
society. 

As  to  the  board,  it  is  already  very  cheap  at  many 
colleges,  and  can  be  made  cheaper  still,  if  students 
choose  to  abstain  from  mere  luxuries,  and  set  their 
heads  on  economizing.  A  rapid  and  salutary  change  is 
going  on  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  It  used  to  be 
the  case  that  college  fashions  were  mainly  set  by  rich 
fellows,  who  went  to  college  simply  as  a  thing  proper  for 
a  gentleman's  son  to  do,  and  consequently  others  were 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOE  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     263 

ashamed  to  show  their  poverty  by  living  plainly.  I  hope 
to  see  the  day  when,  as  in  the  German  cities,  a  student 
can  live  on  as  few  cents  a  day  as  he  pleases,  and  it  will 
be  nobody's  business ;  when  not  only  those  of  moderate 
means,  like  your  son,  but  the  very  poor,  can  work  their 
way,  by  hard  struggles  and  various  helps  and  God's 
favor,  through  a  college  course.  So  it  was  centuries 
ago  in  Europe ;  so  it  is  now  in  Scotland,  in  Germany, 
and  to  some  extent  in  New  England.  The  present  head 
of  one  of  our  most  important  Baptist  institutions  stated 
in  my  presence  that  at  one  period  of  his  student  life  he 
lived  on  bread  and  molasses  for  a  considerable  time. 
Kingman  Nott,  when  at  the  academy,  lived  on  bread 
and  milk,  and  when  prices  rose,  then  on  bread  and  water, 
and  bought  them  with  money  made  by  sawing  wood. 
Some  English  noblemen  are  remembered  in  history  only 
by  the  fact  that,  when  students  at  Oxford,  they  got  their 
boots  blacked  by  a  charity  student,  named  George 
Whitefield.  Ho,  for  the  poor  young  men  !  Look  them 
out ;  call  them  forth  where  they  have  brains,  and  are 
cherishing  vague,  wild  longings  after  an  education  which 
seems  far  on  the  other  side  of  an  impassable  gulf;  help 
them  if  you  can,  show  them  how  to  help  themselves, 
and  stir  in  them  by  encouragement  that  high  resolution, 
which  in  the  young  and  gifted  laughs  at  impossibilities, 
and  conquers  the  world. 

But  after  all,  your  son  is  not  utterly  poor ;  and  when 
you  come  to  think  of  it,  college  education  may  be  so 
managed  as  not  to  be  very  expensive.  .  If,  through  his 
own  good  sense  and  your  good  influence,  he  is  disposed 
to  economy,  he  will  assuredly  find  plenty  of  students  at 


264    COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

the  present  day  to  keep  him  company,  and  students  who 
stand  high  both  in  the  lecture-room  and  in  society.  If 
once  you  made  up  your  mind  that  it  was  really  and  ex- 
ceedingly desirable  for  him  to  go  to  college,  you  know 
very  well  that  you  could  manage  to  provide  the  means. 
And  how  else,  O  thoughtful  and  loving  father,  can  you 
use  the  same  amount  of  money  so  much  for  his  advan- 
tage ?  Pray,  think  that  over.  A  college  education,  or 
a  thousand  dollars,  in  land  or  goods  or  cash — which 
would  be  most  profitable  to  him  as  he  enters  upon  active 
life? 

There  is  another  class  of  objections  which  some  make. 
I  know  not  whether  you  agree  with  them. 

They  say  that  at  college  the  young  man  is  very  apt 
to  form  vicious  habits  and  evil  companionships.  Now  I 
have  spent  most  of  my  active  life  in  connection  with,  or 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  colleges,  and  I  beg  to  ex- 
press the  full  conviction  that  a  young  man  is  safer,  as 
to  companionships  and  temptations  to  vice,  in  any  good 
college  than  in  the  average  home.  Of  course,  there  are 
a  few  exceptional  homes  ;  I  speak  of  the  average,  of  the 
general  rule.  Some  young  men  will  get  into  bad 
courses  wherever  they  may  be.  All  the  good  influences 
at  college  cannot  prevent  it — nor,  if  they  stay  at  home, 
can  father  and  mother  and  sister  and  pastor  and  sweet- 
heart, all  combined,  keep  them  out  of  bad  company  and 
vicious  practices.  But  in  general,  I  repeat  it  earnestly, 
the  morals  of  the  average  student  are  safer  at,  a  well- 
conducted  college  than  at  home.  Some  think  this  might 
be  so  if  the  college  were  at  a  retired  village,  but  not 
when  it  is  in  a  city  :  they  tremble  to  think  of  the  temp- 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.    200 

tations  of  a  city.  But  really  there  are  no  colleges  now 
at  retired  villages.  The  railways  that  bring  the  stu- 
dents can  bring  all  the  apparatus  of  vice,  and  keep  the 
students  in  easy  and  speedy  communication  with  the 
cities  themselves.  Well  may  we  tremble  at  the  tempta- 
tions to  which  our  boys  are  now  everywhere  exposed  ; 
but  when  they  are  nearly  grown,  repression  and  seclu- 
sion are  no  longer  possible ;  we  must  try  to  train  them 
to  sound  principles  and  right  habits  from  childhood, 
foster  in  them  vivid  recollections  of  a  home  where  they 
are  loved  and  prayed  for,  and  let  them  fight  their  battle. 
Remember,  too,  that  if  they  may  meet  evil  companions 
at  college,  they  will  assuredly  meet  many  among  the 
noblest  young  men  of  the  land,  who  will  set  them  an 
example  qf  true  manhood  and  gentlemanly  bearing,  and 
draw  them,  if  they  be  worthy  and  willing,  into  the  bonds 
of  high  and  inspiring  friendship. 

Others  are  afraid  the  young  fellow  will  come  home 
•with  "city  airs."  Perhaps  he  may,  if  he  was  born  a 
simpleton,  in  which  case  I  do  not  urge  sending  him  to 
college.  But  if  he  has  good  sense,  he  will  only  get 
something  of  refinement,  of  graceful  bearing  and  social 
ease,  and  power  of  agreeably  entertaining  others — will 
become  more  of  a  gentleman  in  his  manners  and  tone; 
and  will  not  that  be  an  advantage  to  him? 

A  grave  objection  with  many  excellent  people,  and 
one  having  the  appearance  of  good  ground,  is  that  if 
you  give  young  men  a  college  education,  they  will  "get 
above  business;"  they  will  want  to  engage  in  one  of 
the  "professions.  Now,  something  of  this  sort  has  fre- 
quently happened ;  but  there  are  several  things  to  be 


266    COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS. 

considered  about  it.  Sometimes  the  young  man  is  right 
in  turning  away  from  what  he  and  his  friends  had  con- 
templated ;  for  he  has  become  intelligently  conscious  of 
being  better  suited  to  some  other  pursuit.  In  other 
cases,  it  is  the  effect  of  those  wrong  notions  of  which 
we  have  been  speaking,  and  which  I  hope  you  will  use 
your  influence  to  correct;  he  thinks,  as  so  many  do, 
that  college  education  is  of  no  use  to  a  business  man, 
and  perhaps  foolishly  imagines  business  pursuits  to  be 
less  honorable  and  less  worthy  of  his  intelligence  and 
cultivation  than  some  profession.  But  the  principal 
reason  for  such  occurrences  is  that  we  have  hitherto 
had  a  very  inadequate  supply  of  well-educated  teachers 
and  other  professional  men ;  the  young  man  sees  this, 
and  his  sense  of  the  value  of  education  makes  him  seek 
more  directly  to  propagate  it.  When  high  cultivation 
becomes  more  common,  and  correct  ideas  more  gene- 
rally diffused,  this  evil  will  be,  for  the  most  part,  cor- 
rected. 

"But  suppose  my  son  doesn't  want  to  go  to  college, 
what  then?"  If  he  needs  it,  if  you  see  that  he  would 
be  greatly  profited  by  it,  what  is  your  duty?  Argue 
with  him,  I  should  say,  exhort  him,  plead  with  him, 
and  if  he  is  still  unwilling,  make  him  ^o.  What,  you 
cannot  control  a  boy  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  !  Then  you 
haven't  trained  him  properly,  and  it  is  all  the  more 
important  that  you  should  get  some  professors  to  help 
you  train  him,  before  it  is  too  late.  Yes,  make  him  go. 
And  the  time  shall  be  when  he  will  come  to  you,  in 
your  old  age,  or  perhaps  come  and  stand  by  your 
grave,  and  tell  his  gratitude  that  you  did  not  leave  him 


COLLEGE  EDUCATION  FOR  MEN  OF  BUSINESS.    267 

to  the  follies  of  his  youth;  that  by  all  the  power  of 
parental  love  and  parental  authority  you  constrained 
him  to  that  which  has  been  such  a  blessing  to  him 
through  life.  Oh !  the  dear  memories  thai  come  up  in 
saying  this  of  a  father  who  did  not  need  to  constrain, 
but  who  broke  up  a  pleasant  home,  and  spent  his  last 
years  in  most  uncongenial  employment  and  amid  pecu- 
niary losses,  solely  that  his  son  might  receive  the  edu- 
cation for  which  he  had  not  dared  to  hope.  How  that 
son  thanks  him  more  and  more  every  year — how  he 
thanks  God  for  such  a  wise  and  noble  father. 


XVI. 

EDUCATION  IN  ATHENS.* 

SPHERE  is  nothing  more  natural  or  appropriate,  at 
these  annual  meetings,  than  that  our  thoughts 
should  mainly  dwell  upon  topics  connected  with  edu- 
cation. Not  only  must  the  very  atmosphere  we  breathe, 
all  the  associations  of  the  place  and  the  occasion,  recall 
the  lively  interest  which  years  ago  we  felt  in  this  sub- 
ject, but  our  experience  amid  the  activities  of  life  must 
be  continually  impressing  us  more  deeply  with  the 
importance  of  obtaining  the  most  thorough  mental  cul- 
ture and  the  most  complete  mental  furniture.  And  if 
gratefully  recognizing  the  benefits  received  from  our 
own  early  training,  we  cannot  but  desire  that  others 
may  enjoy  yet  more  abundant  privileges.  We  gather 
again,  those  who  have  wandered  farthest  and  those  who 
have  remained  nearest,  around  the  domestic  hearth ;  we 
look  with  pride  upon  these  younger  brothers  who  fill 
now  the  places  that  once  were  ours,  and  far  from  feel- 
ing any  jealousy  of  their  perhaps  superior  attainments, 
far  from  cherishing  any  aristocratic  notion  of  rights  of 
primogeniture  in  education,  we  can  heartily  wish  that, 
as  is  wont  to  happen  in  this  democratic  and  growing 
country,  our  cherishing  mother  may  be  able  to  provide 

*  Address  before  the  Society  of  Alumni  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, 1856. 
268 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  269 

the  best  advantages  for  her  younger  sons.  Whatever, 
then,  is  related  to  education  in  general,  whatever  prom- 
ises to  cast  the  least  ray  of  light  upon  the  higher  edu- 
cation among  ourselves,  as  it  is  and  as  it  ought  to  be, 
can  hardly  fail,  I  have  thought,  to  be  for  us  a  welcome 
theme. 

Now  the  educational  methods  and  machinery  of  cul- 
tivated modern  nations  have  received  large  attention, 
since  they  furnish  illustrative  examples  which  are  most 
nearly  parallel  and  models  which  are  most  easily  imi- 
tated. But  it  has  appeared  to  me  that  something  at 
least  might  be  learned  from  considering  the  methods 
employed  and  the  material  possessed  among  the  fore- 
most nations  of  antiquity.  A  very  little  reflection  suf- 
ficed to  show  that  one  particular  people  of  the  ancient 
world  afford  not  only  what  is  most  interesting,  but 
almost  all  that  can  be  instructive;  and  for  the  sake  of 
definiteness,  it  seemed  best  to  confine  the  view  to  a  sin- 
gle leading  city  and  a  comparatively  limited  period. 
I  propose  to  speak,  therefore,  of  the  higher  education 
in  Athens  during  the  period  of  its  greatest  prosperity, 
say  the  century  from  about  450  to  about  350  B.  C.  It 
is  a  very  brief,  and  I  know  a  very  imperfect  account, 
which  alone  I  can  expect  to  give ;  but  I  have  hoped  it 
would  possess  some  interest,  and  might  perhaps  suggest 
some  profitable  reflection. 

A  problem  presents  itself  here  for  our  solution.  The 
Greeks,  and  especially  the  Athenians  of  this  age,  have 
left  monuments  of  mental  power  which  the  world  can 
never  cease  to  admire.  Though  ignorance  may  some- 
times sneer,  and  self-complacent  modernism  may  some- 


270  EDUCATION  IN   ATHENS. 

times  assail,  yet  one  need  not  be  a  mere  praiser  of  the 
past  to  assert  that  the  productions  of  the  Athenian 
mind  have  hardly  ever  been  surpassed,  and  not  very 
often  been  equalled,  by  the  noblest  kindred  works  of 
modern  times.  Whence  came  this  wonderful  power? 
What  was  there,  in  the  influences  to  which  they  were 
subjected,  corresponding  to  these  great  results?  Now 
if  a  distinction  be  made  between  what  we  call  education 
in  the  technical  sense  and  those  more  general  influences 
which  accomplish  so  much  in  developing  the  mind  and 
directing  as  well  as  stimulating  its  activity,  then  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  these  last  were  perhaps  more  potent 
among  the  Athenians  than  any  other  nation  of  the 
world.  If  there  be  an  exception,  it  is  in  our  own  peo- 
ple; and,  indeed,  the  most  superficial  observer  must 
always  be  struck  by  the  numerous  points  of  resem- 
blance, in  this  respect,  between  the  Athenians  and  our- 
selves. It  is  very  difficult,  in  either  case,  fully  to 
estimate  the  powerful  effect  of  the  influences  in  ques- 
tion. The  peculiar  genius  of  the  race — its  enthusiasm, 
its  restless  activity,  its  self-reliance — must  form  an  im- 
portant element.  The  working  of  their  democratic 
institutions, — the  fact  that  every  citizen,  besides  fre- 
quently attending  the  popular  assembly  and  having  a 
voice  in  the  direction  of  national  affairs,  so  as  to  feel 
the  dignity  and  responsibility  of  his  position,  was  called 
to  take  part  very  largely  in  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice, sitting  frequently  in  the  immense  juries  of  from 
five  to  fifteen  hundred,  and  required,  whenever  a  cause 
of  his  own  was  on  trial,  to  appear  not  simply  by  coun- 
sel) but  in  his  own  person,  and  plead  for  himself, — all 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  271 

this  would  be  an  element  of  almost  incalculable  import- 
ance. And  the  circumstances  of  the  age  were  not  only- 
favorable,  but  stimulating.  Commerce  and  tribute, 
during  the  years  which  mainly  gave  character  to  this 
period,  filled  Athens  with  wealth,  so  that  men  possessed 
the  leisure  and  the  means  necessary  to  intellectual  pur- 
suits. The  yet  fresh  memories  of  that  great  struggle, 
in  which  their  fathers  had  shown  such  bravery  in  bat- 
tle and  such  heroical  fortitude  in  suffering,  in  order  to 
maintain  their  liberties  against  the  terrible  power  of  the 
Persian  j  the  frequent  successes  and  then  maddening 
losses,  and  the  final  and  almost  hopeless  ruin  which 
made  up  the  history  of  the  Peloponnesian  war;  the 
anxiety  and  strife  connected  with  the  Theban  and 
Macedonian  supremacy, — these  made  it  throughout  an 
age  of  excitement.  But  after  making  the  largest  allow- 
ance for  the  unusual  power  of  these  general  influences, 
one  cannot  resist  the  conviction,  that  there  must  have 
been  something  in  their  education,  strictly  so  called, 
corresponding  to  the  wonderful  excellence  of  their  in- 
tellectual achievements.  We  must  look  into  the  facts, 
so  far  as  they  have  come  down  to  us,  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain whether  this  conviction  is  just. 

If  one  should  begin  by  examining  the  scattered  ex- 
tant allusions  to  elementary  education  in  Athens,  he 
must  be  struck  by  the  extraordinary  attention  which 
was  bestowed  upon  the  subject,  and  the  very  general 
acquaintance,  among  the  citizens,  with  the  elements  of 
knowledge.  Great  philosophers  constantly  interested 
themselves  in  devising  plans  for  the  better  conduct  of 
elementary  instruction.  Schools  for  the  young  were 


272  EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS. 

always  established  by  private  enterprise,  but  there  were 
special  laws  having  reference  to  them,  even  from  the 
time  of  Solon,  and  special  supervisors  for  their  control, 
appointed  by  the  State.  We  read  in  Plutarch's  Themis- 
tocles,  that  when  the  women  and  children  of  Athens  fled 
to  Trcezene  at  the  time  of  the  Persian  invasion,  a  part 
of  the  hospitality  with  which  they  were  entertained  was, 
that  the Trcezenians  paid  persons  to  teach  the  children.  If 
the  story  can  be  relied  on,  it  certainly  affords  a  very 
remarkable  proof  of  the  interest  felt,  by  the  exiles  and 
their  hosts,  in  the  constant  instruction  of  the  young. 
And,  this  being  the  case,  one  is  not  surprised  to  find 
that  at  the  period  of  which  we  speak,  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  citizens,  in  the  proper  sense  of  that 
term,  appear  to  have  been  able  to  read  and  write.  To 
notice  no  other  evidence,  the  fact  is  proven  by  the 
introduction,  as  early  as  510  B.C.,  of  the  remarkable 
institution  known  as  the  Ostracism.  It  would  have 
been  folly  to  resort  to  a  secret  ballot,  in  order  tem- 
porarily to  banish  one  or  the  other  of  two  powerful 
political  rivals  and  thus  secure  political  tranquillity,  if 
any  large  number  of  the  citizens  had  been  dependent 
upon  others  to  prepare  their  ballots,  and  thus  liable  to 
be  imposed  upon  by  designing  partisans. 

With  reference  now  to  the  higher  education,  there  are 
two  departments  of  inquiry,  the  supply  of  instructors, 
and  the  material  of  instruction. 

Of  instructors,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  there 
was  a  much  larger  number  than  the  cursory  reader  of 
Greek  history  and  literature  might  suppose.  There 
were  many  included  under  the  general  name  of  philoso- 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  27.'> 

phers.  Among  these,  every  one  will  think  of  Socrates 
and  Plato,  as  belonging  to  this  age.  Though  the  former 
never  constituted  regular  classes,  yet  we  know  that 
young  men  were  accustomed  to  attach  themselves  to 
him,  and  to  follow  his  daily  wanderings  in  the  agora 
and  the  gymnasium,  conversing  with  him  themselves, 
and  listening  to  his  conversations  with  others ;  so  that 
besides  the  general  influence  he  exerted,  in  awakening 
and  stimulating  the  minds  of  almost  the  entire  com- 
munity, there  was  always  a  circle  of  those  who  might  be 
considered,  in  a  strict  sense,  his  pupils  in  philosophy. 
Plato  held  conversations  and  lectures  in  the  Academy, 
to  which  all  could  listen  who  chose.  We  read  of  him 
as  on  one  occasion  delivering  a  lecture  in  the  Peiraeeus 
on  the  Good  ;  and  one  is  more  sorry  than  surprised  to 
find  that  his  audience  gradually  wasted  away — tho  phil- 
osopher had  chosen  a  subject  too  abstract  for  the  popu- 
lar taste.  In  addition  to  these  public  labors,  he  had 
a  band  of  disciples  who  regularly  assembled  in  his  own 
garden  at  Colon  us,  there  to  partake  of  a  frugal  meal, 
and  discourse  together  on  subjects  of  philosophy.  There 
are  other  famous  philosophers  of  this  age,  who  resided 
at  Athens,  and  taught  their  peculiar  opinions.  Anax- 
agoras  is  stated  to  have  been  the  instructor  of  Euripides 
and  Pericles,  and  many  others  of  the  most  eminent  men 
of  the  time.  Zeno  of  Elea  is  recorded  to  have  spent 
some  years  in  Athens,  unfolding  the  doctrines  of  his 
philosophy  to  such  men  as  Pericles  and  Callias,  from 
the  latter  of  whom  he  received  for  his  instructions  a 
large  sum  of  money,  and  also  to  the  youthful  Socrates. 
The  accomplished  and  excellent  Democritus  would 
18 


274  EDUCATION  IX  ATHENS. 

seem  to  have  sojourned  there  a  while,  and  even  casual 
intercourse  for  a  limited  period  with  a  man  of  his  ex- 
traordinary attainments  and  beautiful  character,  must 
have  been  a  means  of  marked  improvement  to  the  rising 
young  men  of  the  day.  And  may  we  not  take  it  for 
granted  that  there  were  many  others,  citizens  and  stran- 
gers, addicted  to  philosophical  studies,  and  accustomed 
to  give  at  least  informal  instruction  to  the  young,  whose 
names  have  not  come  down  to  us?  They  who  have 
lived  in  history  were  the  men  of  originality,  the  men  of 
splendid  powers,  the  men  who  introduced  new  doctrines 
in  philosophy,  or  wrote  valuable  treatises  on  opinions 
already  current;  must  there  not  have  been  a  much 
more  numerous  class,  just  one  degree  inferior,  who  were 
well  acquainted  with  all  the  teachings  of  the  different 
schools,  perhaps  warmly  attached  to  the  doctrines  of 
the  Ionian  school  of  Pythagoras  or  the  Eleatics,  and 
anxious  to  win  over  every  young  man  of  promise  to 
their  own  opinions  ?  These  would  often  give  far  more 
information  as  to  the  true  nature  and  extent  of  the  vari- 
ous systems  than  the  more  original  thinkers,  who  would 
commonly  allude  to  the  tenets  of  their  predecessors,  as 
Socrates  does  to  those  of  Anaxagoras,  only  for  purposes 
of  refutation  or  ridicule.  Thus  we  may  see  that  the 
class  called  philosophers  formed  a  numerous  corps,  so  to 
speak,  of  able  and  active  instructors. 

Again,  there  were  many  persons  who  made  teaching 
their  occupation.  A  man  who  had  gained  some  reputa- 
tion, perhaps,  as  master  of  an  elementary  school,  or  had 
become  specially  fond  of  a  particular  subject,  would 
undertake  to  give  instruction  to  young  men,  separately 


EDUCATION    IN   ATHENS.  275 

or  in  classes.  We  find  incidental  allusions  to  some  of 
these,  as  teachers  of  music  (in  the  modern  sense),  of 
geometry,  of  oratory,  <&c.  It  is  plain  from  the  manner 
of  allusion  that  they  were  numerous ;  but  only  one  here 
and  there  is  known  to  posterity,  from  his  good  fortune 
in  having  some  pupil  who  became  famous.  As  many 
an  humble  English  clergyman  has  a  name  in  history 
from  his  being  the  early  tutor  of  a  great  statesman,  as  a 
plain  New  England  schoolmaster  will  be  remembered 
because  of  his  connection  with  Webster,  so  there  is  now 
and  then  to  be  found,  from  among  the  old  Athenian 
instructors,  some  name  which  had  floated  down  the  all- 
engulfing  tide  of  time  only  because  attached  to  the 
ever-buoyant,  imperishable  names  of  Pericles  or  Plato, 
of  Aristotle  or  Demosthenes.  It  is  a  thought  not 
strange  to  the  bosom  of  any  reflecting  instructor,  a 
thought  tending  to  humility,  and  yet  to  honest  pride  in 
the  true  power  of  his  calling,  that  centuries  to  come 
men  may  recognize  as  his  chief  claim  to  their  gratitude, 
the  influence  he  exerted  upon  another ;  yea,  that  highly 
and  deservedly  honored  as  he  is  now,  posterity  may 
remember  him  at  all,  only  for  having  been  the  teacher 
of  one  who  sits  now,  a  modest  lad,  scarce  noticed  among 
his  pupils. 

Perhaps  the  most  influential  of  these  professional 
teachers,  and  certainly  those  who  have  the  largest  place 
in  history,  are  the  so-called  Sophists.  Among  the 
numerous  instances  in  which  recent  historical  research 
has  overturned  received  opinions,  there  are  few  more 
striking  than  the  inquiry  which  Mr.  Grote  has  made,  in 
his  unrivalled  history,  into  the  true  character  of  these 


276  EDUCATION    IN  ATHENS. 

celebrated  men;  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  state  the 
conclusions  he  has  reached  and  the  outline  of  his 
argument.  Doubtless,  in  attacking  the  popular  notion, 
he  has  gone  somewhat  to  the  other  extreme.  We  have 
more  than  one  remarkable  case  of  this  among  the  dis- 
tinguished historians  of  the  present  generation.  Ever 
since  the  days  of  Niebuht  it  has  been  the  fashion  to 
assail  all  established  historical  opinions ;  and  wherever 
plausible  grounds  can  be  found  for  questioning,  there  at 
once  to  reject.  Pleased  at  detecting  the  errors  of  ancient 
authorities,  many  a  writer  seeins  to  forget  that  himself 
can  err  in  the  conclusions  drawn  from  their  statements  ; 
delighted  to  expose  the  prejudiced  views  of  previous  his- 
torians, he  may  yield,  half  unconsciously,  to  prejudices  of 
his  own.  When  weary  of  the  misrepresentation  and  gen- 
eral injustice  which  so  frequently  attach  to  contempora- 
neous judgments,  we  often  console  ourselves  by  thinking 
of  the  future,  and  "  the  impartial  voice  of  history." 
Yet  it  is  but  a  poor  approximation  to  impartiality  that 
is  ever  actually  found.  No  achromatic  arrangement  has 
been  devised,  whereby  the  historian,  as  he  looks  into  the 
distant  past,  may  be  able  to  see  things  precisely  in  their 
true  colors. 

But  to  return.  The  term  sophist,  which  is  for  us  so 
opprobrious,  and  which  from  the  days  of  Plato  began 
to  be  confined  to  a  particular  set  of  men,  originally 
denoted,  in  the  general  and  honorable  sense,  a  wise  man, 
a  man  of  talent.  It  was  applied  to  poets  and  statesmen, 
and  constantly  used  by  Herodotus  in  speaking  of  the 
"  seven  sages."  But  where  general  ignorance  prevails, 
there  will  always  be  a  secret  dislike  to  the  few  men  of 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  277 

superior  attainments  and  abilities,  which  gradually  be- 
comes more  decided  till  it  is  avowed.  Thus  by  degrees 
there  came  to  be  associated  with  the  term  sophist,  a 
certain  invidious  feeling.  Then  other  words,  such  as 
philosopher,  were  preferred  for  the  good  sense,  and 
sophist  became  the  stock  term  of  reproach  applied  to 
any  person,  who  possessed  acknowledged  power  and  was 
eminent  as  a  teacher,  but  for  whatever  reason  was  per- 
sonally unpopular.  Thus  Aristophanes,  in  the  "  Clouds," 
called  Socrates  a  sophist;  and  in  a  subsequent  age, 
"Timon,  who  bitterly  satirized  all  the  philosophers, 
designated  them  all,  including  Plato  and  Aristotle,  by 
the  general  name  of  sophists."  Now  Socrates,  and  still 
more  Plato,  greatly  disliking  the  eminent  professional 
teachers  of  their  time,  have  succeeded,  by  their  justly 
powerful  influence,  in  fastening  upon  them  this  odious 
name.  The  cause  of  their  dislike  was  two-fold.  The 
men  in  question  taught  for  pay.  Of  course,  those  of 
them  who  became  most  celebrated  would  at  times 
receive  high  pay ;  and  in  some  cases  they  went  from  one 
city  to  another,  where  there  was  a  prospect  of  obtaining 
large  sums  for  their  instructions.  The  result  would  be, 
that  these  ablest  men  commonly  taught  only  the  wealthy. 
All  this  was  extremely  repugnant  to  the  notions  of  the 
two  great  philosophers.  Socrates  held  that  the  relation 
between  preceptor  and  pupil  must  be  like  that  of  inti~ 
mate  friends,  or  even  of  lovers ;  and  that  this  could  not 
possibly  be  the  case,  unless  the  instruction  were  gratui- 
tous. With  our  modern  ideas  and  experience,  we  should 
of  course  utterly  dissent  from  this  philosophic  fancy. 
True,  there  is  still  a  certain  unwillingness  to  see  men 


278  EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS. 

receive  for  the  duties  of  this  profession  a  compensation 
at  all  approaching  to  equality  with  that  which  the  same 
ability  and  attainment  and  devotion  might  secure  in 
some  other  calling;  but  we  do  not  require  them  to 
teach  altogether  for  love.  We  do  not  expect  a  profound 
and  accomplished  man,  every  day  and  all  the  day  long, 
to  leave  his  home  to  Xantippean  care,  and,  poorly  clad 
and  with  scanty  fare,  to  wander  among  the  people,  giving 
instruction  to  all  who  might  desire  it.  Not  even  to 
escape  the  horrors  of  a  home  like  that  of  Socrates, 
nor  to  have  the  exquisite  pleasure  of  proving  other 
people  less  wise  than  themselves,  could  men  be  expected 
to  lead  such  a  life  of  privation  and  penury.  In  this  re- 
spect, then,  the  prejudice  against  the  teachers  called 
Sophists,  was  certainly  unjust. 

The  other  ground  of  dislike  was  the  peculiar  character 
of  their  teachings,  as  contrasted  with  those  of  Plato  and 
his  great  master.  Socrates  was  a  moral  reformer,  Plato 
a  splendid  social  theorizer,  proposing  to  re-model  society 
altogether ;  while  the  persons  they  stigmatize  undertook 
merely  to  prepare  young  men  for  performing  their  duties 
as  citizens,  for  achieving  success  and  reputation  in 
Athens  as  it  was.  How  much  soever  we  may  admire 
the  doctrines  of  the  philosophers,  we  cannot  account  the 
latter  to  have  been  in  itself  an  unworthy  task.  There 
is  no  proof  that  the  ethical  precepts  they  inculcated 
were  immoral ;  all  the  fragments  which  remain  are  of 
an  opposite  tendency.  By  the  discipline  they  gave,  and 
the  knowledge  they  imparted,  their  pupils  acquired  a 
power  which  certainly  could  be  used  for  maintaining  the 
wrong  as  well  as  the  right ;  but  in  cases  where  such  per- 


EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS.  279 

version  occurred,  it  was  no  more  an  argument  against 
their  teachers,  than  was  the  misconduct  of  Alcibiades  a 
proof,  as  so  strenuously  urged,  of  some  corrupting  ten- 
dency in  the  teachings  of  Socrates.  It  may  be  that  in 
training  the  young  men  for  skill  in  discussion  and  effec- 
tive oratory,  they  sometimes  adopted  the  mistaken  plan 
of  teaching  them  to  defend  the  weaker  side  and  argue  in 
favor  of  what  was  known  to  be  untrue ;  but  it  caunot  be 
shown  that  their  instructions  had  any  direct  and  pur- 
posed tendency  to  confound  moral  distinctions.  The 
accusation  that  their  pupils  were  trained  to  "  make  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason,"  from  which  especially 
has  come  the  modern  use  of  the  word  sophist,  was  made 
also  against  Socrates,  and  as  he  himself  remarks,  was 
the  charge  constantly  made  against  persons  devoted  to 
philosophy.  And  whatever  reproach  may  attach  to  a 
readiness  to  defend  either  side  of  a  cause,  it  must  be 
borne  by  one  of  the  most  learned  and  honored  professions 
of  both  ancient  and  modern  times. 

It  may  be  concluded,  then,  that  we  have  no  evidence 
that  there  was  anything  corrupting  in  the  influence  of 
these  much-abused  men.  And  certainly  the  general 
effect  of  their  instructions  was  very  great.  Thoroughly 
acquainted  with  all  the  learning  of  the  age,  devoting  all 
their  energies  to  the  instruction,  for  the  time  being,  of  a 
few  select  individuals,  Protagoras,  Gorgias  and  their 
compeers  were  educators  of  no  mean  order.  As  to 
public  speaking,  some  of  them  appear  to  have  taught 
the  analysis  of  a  discourse  into  its  parts,  with  various 
practical  rules  for  the  proper  management  of  each  ;  and 
tdiis  was  a  great  advance  upon  all  previous  treatment, 


280  EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS. 

and  a  necessary  preparation  for  the  work  of  the  great 
master  of  rhetoric.  And  they  could  add  to  their  precept 
the  example  of  an  elaborate  and  ornate  style  of  oratory 
which  was  not  without  its  power,  and  for  a  time  became 
very  popular.  Bad  taste  in  this  respect  was  perhaps  the 
greatest  fault  of  their  teachings.  Such  a  style  was  the 
very  opposite  of  that  beautiful  simplicity  and  directness, 
that  absence  of  all  artificial  ornament,  for  which  Aristotle 
contended,  which  Demosthenes  so  strikingly  exemplified, 
and  which  forms  the  chief  charm  of  all  the  better 
Grecian  literature. 

Upon  the  whole,  it  must  be  evident  that,  at  the  period 
of  which  we  speak,  Athens  abounded  in  men  who  occu- 
pied themselves  as  instructors  in  the  higher  education. 
Indeed,  we  know  that  from  every  part  of  Greece  and  the 
colonies,  men  of  ability  and  ambition  flocked  to  this 
great  city,  where  their  literary  tastes  would  find  sym- 
pathy and  their  labors  reward,  and  the  approbation  of 
whose  citizens  would  constitute  the  highest  meed  of 
fame.  We  learn,  too,  that  men  were  accustomed  to  send 
their  sons  from  distant  cities  to  Athens  to  be  educated  ; 
so  that  already  the  city  began  to  be,  what  in  the  age  of 
Cicero  it  had  fully  become,  the  University  of  the 
World. 

The  places  at  which  instruction  was  commonly  given 
were  peculiar.  When  the  hour  of  noon  was  fully  past, 
and  the  business  of  the  agora  completed,  almost  all  the 
men  of  leisure  in  the  city  might  have  been  seen  taking 
their  way  without  the  walls,  to  one  or  another  of  the 
three  great  Gymnasia.  Some  of  these  went  to  the  bath, 
others  to  participate  in,  or  witness,  the  gymnastic  exer- 


EDUCATION    IN   ATHENS.  281 

cises,  while  many  others  tarried  in  the  peristyle.  This 
outer  court  of  the  Gymnasium  consisted  of  a  spacious 
lawn  surrounded  by  buildings.  On  three  of  its  sides 
were  arcades  with  large  halls,  many  of  them  open  to  the 
sky,  and  having  stone  benches,  running  along  the  walls, 
or  arranged  in  a  semi-circular  form.  In  these  numerous 
public  halls,  men  would  seat  themselves  for  conversa- 
tion, and  here  might  be  found  many  a  philosopher  or 
professor,  with  a  band  of  pupils  around  him,  and  per- 
haps a  crowd  of  listeners  near,  engaged  in  earnest 
dialogue  or  lecture.  When  weary  of  formal  lecture- 
room  instruction  they  would  wander  forth  among  the 
shade-trees  of  the  lawn,  conversing  still  upon  the  subject 
which  had  occupied  them  before.  Socrates,  if  we  may 
judge  from  his  general  course,  probably  frequented  all 
the  gymnasia  in  turn ;  though  there  appears  to  have 
been  some  one  place  where  he  was  most  commonly  to 
be  found,  and  which  Aristophanes  humorously  called 
Socrates'  thinking-shop.  Two  of  the  great  gymnasia 
have  become  famous  as  the  chosen  resort  of  Plato  and 
of  Aristotle ;  and  every  little  palaestra  seems  to  have 
been  employed  for  the  same  purpose,  and  often  appro- 
priated by  some  particular  instructor.  Besides,  teachers 
of  every  class  frequently  gathered  their  pupils  and 
friends  at  their  own  houses,  or  at  the  residence  of  some 
person  of  literary  tastes,  and  there  spout  the  hours  in 
familiar  conversation  and  at  times  in  regular  instruc- 
tion. 

But  what  formed  the  subject  of  these  conversations 
and  lectures?  What  educational  material  did  the 
Greeks  of  this  age  possess?  What  progress  had  they 


282  EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS. 

already  made  in  the  several  departments  of  knowledge  ? 
To  this  inquiry  we  turn.  Instead  of  pausing  to  explain 
the  peculiar  phraseology  which  they  employed,  it  will 
be  more  convenient  to  use  the  modern  sub-divisions  and 
terms. 

With  the  most  remarkable  properties  of  Numbers, 
and  the  processes  which  admit  of  being  performed  upon 
them,  the  Greeks  of  this  period  had  made  considerable 
acquaintance.  The  fanciful  theory  of  Pythagoras  and 
his  followers,  that  all  things  have  their  origin  in  numer- 
ical relations,  that  every  physical  existence  and  every 
mental  attribute  is  due  to  some  combination  of  numbers, 
would  naturally  lead  them  to  investigate  in  that  direc- 
tion with  the  greatest  diligence.  Besides  those  several 
operations  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  arithmetic,  they 
seem  to  have  possessed  methods  of  extracting  the  square 
and  cube  root,  and  to  have  been  familiar  with  the  theory 
of  arithmetical  and  geometrical  proportions  and  pro- 
gressions. The  elements  of  arithmetic  were  carefully 
taught  in  the  schools  for  boys ;  and  its  higher  questions 
appear  to  have  awakened  interest  and  received  large 
attention  among  the  most  cultivated  men. 

Of  Geometry  they  knew  much  more.  Every  one  is 
aware  that  our  modern  treatises  on  synthetic  geometry 
contain,  to  say  the  least,  no  very  great  improvements 
upon  the  work  of  an  old  Greek.  It  is  true  that  Euclid 
wrote  considerably  later  than  the  period  we  are  contem- 
plating (for  it  is  now  settled  that  he  was  a  different 
person  from  Euclides  of  Megara,  the  pupil  of  Socrates), 
but  we  might  be  sure,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case, 
that  a  treatise  so  complete  as  his  Elements  cannot  have 


EDUCATION    IN   ATHENS.  283 

been  the  creation  of  a  single  mind.  And  in  fact  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  Geometry  had  been  largely 
studied  from  the  earliest  times,  especially  from  the  time 
of  Pythagoras,  and  that  enough  was  known  before 
the  days  of  Plato  to  prepare  for  his  reputed  discovery 
of  some  of  the  properties  of  the  conic  sections.  Some- 
what earlier  than  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.C. 
(460)  we  read  of  a  systematic  treatise  on  Geometry,  pre- 
pared by  Hippocrates  of  Chios,  and  similar  works  are 
ascribed  to  later  authors.  Plato  insisted  very  much  on 
the  importance  of  this  science,  not  only  for  practical, 
but  for  educational  purposes,  and  (according  to  the 
familiar  story)  refused  to  admit  any  one  into  the  inner 
circle  of  his  philosophical  pupils,  who  was  not  a  Geom- 
eter. When  in  his  old  age  he  was  invited  to  visit  and 
instruct  the  younger  Dionysius  at  Syracuse,  he  set  the 
monarch  his  first  lessons  in  Geometry.  Thus  it  appears, 
that  during  this  age  geometrical  studies  were  pursued 
with  great  zeal,  and  rapid  advances  were  continually 
made  even  in  the  higher  departments  of  the  science, 
while  there  existed  compends  for  elementary  instruction. 
Astronomy  had  likewise  become  a  favorite  subject. 
There  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  story 
that  Thales  predicted  an  eclipse  of  the  sun ;  of  course 
it  must  have  been  by  some  empirical  method.  In  the 
sixth  century  B.C.,  the  age  of  Anaximander,  there  are 
said  to  have  been  instruments  for  determining  the  time 
of  solstices  and  equinoxes ;  and  as  early  as  432  B.C. 
the  golden  period  was  devised  by  Meton.  They  had 
divided  the  visible  heavens  into  constellations,  and 
marked  out  a  Zodiac,  which  is  still  retained.  Accurate 


284  EDUCATION   IX   ATHENS. 

observations  upon  the  motions  of  the  planets,  though 
five  of  them  were  so  familiarly  known,  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  made  till  a  somewhat  later  period.  But 
already  there  were  distinguished  Geometers  who  taught 
something  of  astronomy,  and  whose  instructions  came 
to  be  in  great  request ;  and  many  minds  were  busy  with 
astronomical  inquiries.  The  clear  atmosphere  of  Attica 
was  very  favorable  for  watching  the  heavenly  bodies ; 
and  one  or  another  of  the  surrounding  mountains  might 
well  serve,  as  Lycabettus  was  used  by  Meton,  for  an 
observatory.  In  other  branches  of  Physical  Science 
very  little  was  known  that  we  should  account  satis- 
factory or  valuable.  A  spirit  of  inquiry  had  been 
awakened,  and  miscellaneous  observations  were  made  in 
every  direction,  which  doubtless  aided  in  furnishing 
material  for  the  numerous  and  valuable  works  of  Aris- 
totle upon  physical  subjects,  as,  for  instance,  upon 
Natural  History.  When  we  find  the  persons  composing 
the  so-called  Ionian  school,  from  Thales  to  Anaxagoras 
and  onward,  spoken  of  as  natural  philosophers,  we 
must  understand  little  more  than  that  they  occupied 
themselves  with  general  physical  speculations.  Uni- 
versal science  had  not  yet  been  divided  into  various 
distinct  departments ;  indeed,  the  making  of  such  a 
division  would  require  no  small  previous  knowledge, 
even  as  one  who  is  preparing  a  discourse  has  gone  far 
towards  mastering  his  subject  when  he  has  fairly  marked 
out  its  natural  divisions.  Looking  at  the  universe  as  a 
whole,  and  influenced  by  that  desire  for  unity,  which 
finds  its  true  satisfaction  in  the  idea  of  a  great  First 
Cause,  the  earlier  Greek  philosophers  were  constantly 


EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS.  285 

seeking  some  simple  primordial  principle,  which  would 
account  for  the  origin  of  all  existing  things.  When 
some  of  them  taught  that  this  principle  is  one  of  the 
more  subtile  forms  of  matter,  as  water  or  air  or  fire,  it 
was  not  pure  a  priori  speculation ;  but  they  seem  to 
have  always  observed  at  least  a  small  number  of  facts, 
and  upon  these  built  their  theory.*  So  that  we  have 
here  only  an  extreme  result  of  that  tendency  to  hasty 
generalization,  and  then  unwarranted  inference,  which, 
in  some  departments  of  physical  science,  is  not  wholly 
restrained,  even  amid  the  correct  principles  and  careful 
researches  of  our  own  day.  And  while  these  theories 
were,  in  many  respects,  absurd  and  utterly  fruitless, 
and  served  to  divert  attention  from  that  accurate  and 
patient  observation  which  alone  can  lead  to  any  correct 
acquaintance  with  the  material  world,  yet  they  were  by 
no  means  without  value  as  a  sort  of  mental  gymnastics. 
We  have  thus  entered  upon  the  Greek  Philosophy. 
Of  course,  no  more  can  be  attempted,  in  speaking  of 
this  great  subject,  than  to  call  attention  to  its  extent 
and  value,  as  being  indeed  the  chief  material  of  Athe- 
nian education.  It  is  a  well-known  matter  of  dispute 
how  far  the  Greeks  were  indebted  for  their  philosophy 
to  the  Orientals.  Ritter  contends,  with  great  earnest- 
ness and  force,  that  it  originated  almost  entirely  among 
themselves.  Coleridge  used  to  declare  that  he  could 
not  believe  it  was  otherwise.  Admitting,  however, 
what  seems  at  least  probable,  that  a  certain  influence 

*  At  the  present  day  (A.D.  1886)  even  the  most  rapid  sketch  would 
make  some  mention  of  Democritus  and  his  atomic  theory,  to  which 
attention  has  of  late  been  anew  directed. 


286  EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS. 

was  exerted  by  Oriental  ideas,  both  in  the  rise  of  Greek 
speculation,  and  subsequently  through  particular  men, 
as  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  yet  certainly  their  philosophy 
was  their  own,  in  the  sense  that  it  had  a  regular  devel- 
opment, in  accordance  with  the  genius  of  the  people 
and  their  general  progress.  Even  in  the  pre-Socratic 
philosophy  we  find  an  orderly  succession  of  doctrines, 
either  by  natural  development  or  the  antagonism  of  re- 
action, corresponding  precisely  with  the  alternations  of 
philosophic  opinion  in  all  subsequent  ages.  There  was 
ultra-sensationalism  and  ultra-idealism,  with  various 
attempts  to  combine  the  two.  There  was  a  school 
recognizing  an  imperfect  sort  of  theism ;  another,  with 
teachings  more  or  less  distinctly  atheistic,  and  more 
than  one  whose  tendencies  were  decidedly  to  pantheism. 
Whatever  value,  then,  as  an  instrument  of  education,  is 
assigned  to  modern  speculation,  belongs  likewise,  in  no 
small  measure,  to  even  this  earlier  philosophy  of  the 
Greeks,  presenting,  as  it  did,  the  same  subjects  of  in- 
vestigation and  essentially  the  same  systems  of  belief, 
though  with  a  much  less  extensive  development,  and  in 
a  much  less  perfect  form.  And  it  was  not  only  valua- 
ble, but  attractive.  The  men  of  that  time  were  largely 
occupied,  as  philosophers  have  always  been,  with  the 
interesting  task  of  exposing  the  erroneousness  and  ab- 
surdity of  opposite  opinions,  and  this  with  no  lack  of 
the  most  pungent  personality.  The  fact,  too,  that  these 
speculations  were  so  much  at  variance  with  prevailing 
opinions,  would  lead  men  not  only  to  make  acquaint- 
ance with  them,  but,  when  they  possessed  any  plausi- 
bility at  all,  to  investigate  them  with  a  sharp  and 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  287 

searching  attention.  So  great  is  the  power  of  paradox 
in  stimulating  inquiry,  that  we  have  seen  eminent  in- 
structors at  times  cast  their  ideas  into  a  purposely 
paradoxical  form,  with  the  design  of  breaking  up  set- 
tled prejudices  and  arousing  to  examination.  Now, 
when  a  young  Greek,  accustomed  to  those  old  legend- 
ary notions,  which  vaguely  described  all  things  as  the 
offspring  of  certain  imaginary  persons,  was  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  doctrines  held  by  one  or  another  of 
the  early  schools  of  philosophy, — when  he  heard,  for 
instance,  of  some  original  substance  and  of  impersonal 
forces,  as  accounting  for  all  existences,  he  would  almost 
certainly  be  led  into  curious  inquiry  and  earnest  reflec- 
tion; and  when  these  speculations  came  to  be  denounced 
and  persecuted  as  impious,  that  would  only  give  them 
an  additional  charm.  Is  there  not  in  these  considera- 
tions sufficient  explanation  of  the  fact  that  the  doctrines 
referred  to  were  through  life  eagerly  studied  by  such  a 
man  as  Pericles,  and  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that 
they  largely  contributed  to  the  expansion  and  discipline 
of  his  great  mind  ?  That  the  philosophical  teachings 
of  Socrates  and  his  illustrious  pupil  were  immensely 
valuable  for  purposes  of  education  will  be  recognized 
at  once  and  by  all.  Let  it  only  be  observed  that  their 
most  profound  and  difficult  speculations  possessed  al- 
ways some  element  suited  to  awaken  the  liveliest  inter- 
est. They  taught  political  and  social  philosophy  to 
young  men  whose  special  ambition,  in  most  cases,  was 
for  political  advancement,  and  for  whom  these  subjects 
formed  a  part,  so  to  speak,  of  professional  study. 
Their  ethical  and  aBsthetic  inquiries  were  often  made  to 


288  EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS. 

spring  from  some  actual  occurrence  or  real  object, 
which  seemed  to  render  them  living  questions.  And 
every  one  who  has  read  Plato  will  remember  the  viva- 
city of  manner  with  which  Socrates  is  represented  as 
discussing  the  most  abstruse  subjects,  and  the  familiar, 
quaint,  even  whimsical  character  of  many  of  his  illus- 
trations. A  delight  in  abstract  inquiries,  a  love  of 
dialectical  investigation  for  its  own  sake  as  well  as  for 
its  fruits,  a  consequent  sharpening  of  all  the  mental 
powers,  and  a  general  elevation  of  spirit  at  least  in 
some  degree  commensurate  with  the  ennobling  tendency 
of  the  doctrines  themselves,  must  have  been  derived 
from  any  careful  study  of  the  Socratic  and  Platonic 
philosophy.  Every  well-informed  man  has  doubtless 
already  as  exalted  an  idea  of  its  educational  influence 
upon  that  and  all  subsequent  ages  as  any  attempted 
estimate  could  possibly  give. 

There  were  other  subjects  to  which  much  time  was 
devoted  among  the  Athenians,  and  from  which  they 
cannot  have  failed  to  derive  large  benefit.  We  have, 
however,  no  very  definite  information  concerning  the 
extent  to  which  these  were  made  matter  of  systematic 
instruction  by  the  teachers  of  young  men.  They  stud- 
ied their  own  noble  literature.  In  the  elementary 
schools,  a  large  portion  of  their  time  was  occupied  in 
committing  to  memory  the  writings  of  the  great  poets, 
epic,  lyric  and  dramatic;  so  that  we  read  of  young  men 
who  were  able  to  repeat  the  entire  Iliad  and  the  like. 
There  is  a  well-known  and  touching  story,  that  when 
the  Athenian  soldiers  taken  captive  at  Syracuse  in  the 
year  413  B.C.  were  sold  into  slavery,  many  of  them 


EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS. 

gained  the  favor  of  their  masters,  and  some  their  lib- 
erty, by  repeating  large  portions  of  the  dramas  of 
Euripides,  who  was  very  popular  in  Sicily,  and  that 
several  of  these  lived  to  thank  the  great  poet  on  their 
return  to  Athens.  Besides  the  obvious  improvement  of 
memory  and  refinement  of  taste,  this  exercise  at  school 
formed  a  means  of  acquiring  that  accuracy  and  elegance 
of  pronunciation  which  the  Athenians  so  rigidly  re- 
quired, and  which,  in  the  Greek  language,  must  have 
been  so  difficult.  It  prepared  them  also  for  the  intro- 
duction and  appreciation  of  those  felicitous  quotations 
from  the  older  poets  which  so  abound  in  the  orators 
and  philosophers.  But  these  early  lessons  were  not  all ; 
in  some  cases,  at  least,  lectures  on  literature  were  deliv- 
ered by  the  higher  instructors.  Hippias  is  represented 
by  Plato  as  lecturing  to  crowded  audiences  on  Homer 
and  various  other  poets,  giving  much  archaeological 
information  which  might  illustrate  those  old  writers, 
presenting  critical  estimates  of  the  comparative  value  of 
different  poems  and  of  the  character  of  the  Homeric 
heroes.  It  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that  the  prac- 
tice was  not  unusual.  The  benefit  derived  from  these 
lectures  would  be  greatly  augmented  by  the  fact  that 
every  man  who  heard  them  had  a  familiar  previous 
acquaintance  with  the  literature  which  formed  their 
subject.  Add  to  all  this  the  general  effect  of  reading 
and  of  the  drama,  and  it  cannot  be  questioned  that  here 
was  a  most  important  means  of  education.  Even  so 
much  as  then  existed  of  that  glorious  literature,  whose 
thoughts  of  power  and  forms  of  beauty  still  afford  val- 
uable discipline  and  abiding  delight  to  all  civilized 
19 


290  EDUCATION    IN   ATHENS. 

nations,  must  have  been  far  more  influential  among  a 
people  who  could  perfectly  sympathize  with  its  inner 
spirit,  a  people  familiar  with  the  scenes  it  depicted  and 
for  whom  it  possessed  the  peculiar  charm  that  always 
attaches  to  our  national  history  and  our  native  tongue. 

Much  attention  was  also  given  to  the  arts.  Almost 
every  Athenian  youth  learned  something  of  the  graphic 
arts  and  of  music,  and  a  philosophy  of  each  was  already 
recognized.  Phidias,  Parrhasius  and  others  established 
canons  in  their  several  departments  of  art,  and  musical 
science,  both  in  its  physical  and  metaphysical  relations, 
was  largely  studied.  Aristotle  has  left  us  an  elaborate 
argument  on  the  importance  of  a  practical  acquaintance 
with  these  subjects,  which  in  his  day  were  beginning  to 
be  neglected.  He  says,  for  example,  that  taking  the 
very  lowest  view,  these  accomplishments  are  a  source  of 
exceeding  pleasure  to  ourselves  and  others,  and  that  it 
should  be  a  part  of  education  to  fit  men  not  only  for 
the  proper  pursuit  of  business,  but  also  for  the  becom- 
ing enjoyment  of  leisure.  One  might  recall,  in  connec- 
tion with  this,  a  saying  of  Pericles,  in  the  remarkable 
funeral  oration.  He  accounts  it  one  of  the  peculiar 
glories  of  Athens  that  their  laws  provide  for  such  fre- 
quent intermissions  of  care,  by  means  of  numerous  and 
elegant  recreations,  whose  daily  delight  charms  melan- 
choly away.  Another  point  of  the  philosopher's  argu- 
ment is  that  rhythm  and  harmony  tend  to  regulate  and 
refine  the  mind,  while  the  graphic  arts  lead  us  up  to 
the  contemplation  of  beauty,  as  letters  to  the  contem- 
plation of  truth.  The  example  of  the  Greeks,  it  may 
be  remarked,  will  go  very  far  to  show  that  the  study 


EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS.  291 

and  practice  of  music,  which  among  ourselves  is  so 
commonly  neglected  and  so  often  despised,  is  not  in- 
compatible, to  say  the  least,  with  profound  wisdom  or 
with  practical  fitness  for  the  business  of  life. 

We  see,  then,  that  however  limited  in  comparison 
with  the  attainments  of  modern  times,  the  field  of  ac- 
quired knowledge  was  really  of  great  extent.  With  a 
considerable  amount  of  Mathematics  and  Astronomy, 
and  an  active  interest  in  the  investigation  of  these  and 
numerous  kindred  subjects,  with  Philosophy  in  all  its 
divisions  and  Art  in  all  its  branches,  and  with  an 
already  valuable  Literature, — there  was  material  for  a 
course  of  instruction  protracted  through  many  years. 
If,  now,  we  combine  with  this  result  the  conclusion 
previously  reached  as  to  the  abundant  supply  of  instruc- 
tors, I  think  it  will  sufficiently  appear  that  the  Athe- 
nians of  the  age  in  question  possessed  such  facilities  for 
enlarged  and  thorough  education  as  may  account  for  the 
extraordinary  degree,  not  only  of  mental  power,  but  of 
mental  discipline,  which  is  so  manifest  in  their  history 
and  remaining  works.  It  would  hardly  be  extravagant 
to  assert,  that  in  real  training  of  mind,  in  mastery  of 
principles  and  knowledge  of  men,  in  capacity  for  every 
form  of  mental  effort,  from  the  most  refined  speculation 
to  the  conduct  of  affairs,  they  were  as  highly  educated  a 
people  as  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

The  subject  I  have  endeavored  thus  summarily  to 
present  might  suggest  a  variety  of  reflections  bearing 
upon  our  own  educational  interests.  To  a  few  of  these 
I  shall  now  alfude. 

Instruction  among  the  Athenians  was  chiefly  oral. 


292  EDUCATION    IN   ATHENS. 

Books  they  had,  but  they  were  rare  and  costly.  Much 
of  their  reading  was  with  the  peculiar  disadvantages  as 
well  as  peculiar  benefits  of  using  borrowed  books.  It 
was  a  matter  of  necessity  that  they  should  occupy  them- 
selves mainly  with  oral  discussion.  The  multiplication 
of  books  and  their  cheapness  has  perhaps  been  the  chief 
cause  of  that  entirely  opposite  practice  which  now  so 
largely  prevails.  Of  course  it  is  not  necessary  to  dis- 
cuss the  merits  of  the  two  methods  in  this  presence. 
The  prominence  of  lecturing,  in  every  department  of 
the  University,  has  beyond  question  contributed  not  a 
little  to  its  success,  stimulating  to  that  sharpened  atten- 
tion in  the  lecture-room  which  intelligent  visitors  have 
so  often  remarked,  and  leading  to  a  thorough  compre- 
hension of  general  principles  on  the  part  of  students, 
while  it  almost  necessitates  laborious  personal  study, 
year  after  year,  on  the  part  of  those  who  teach.  One  is 
surprised  to  find  it  said,  by  persons  elsewhere  who  still 
hold  to  the  opposite  course,  that  this  method  proposes  to 
throw  away  text-books  altogether,  when  a  judicious 
combination  of  the  two  is  constantly  advocated  and 
attempted,  a  combination  varying  in  the  relative  pro- 
portion of  its  elements  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
particular  subject.  Nor  is  it  less  strange  to  hear  it 
urged,  that  the  method  is  appropriate  only  for  those  who 
have  decided  maturity  of  mind,  since  a  brief  experi- 
ment would  suffice  to  show  that  nowhere  more  than  in 
elementary  schools  is  oral  instruction  profitable  and  neces- 
sary. One  might  be  inclined  at  times  to  suspect  that  a 
latent  dread  of  the  labor  it  requires  is  the  true  ground 
of  opposition,  did  not  the  high  character  for  ability 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  293 

» 

and  faithfulness  of  some  who  oppose,  render  the  sup- 
position inadmissible. — Moreover,  the  Athenians  derived 
much  of  their  knowledge  from  free  conversation,  not 
only  between  an  instructor  and  his  pupils,  but  in  the 
social  intercourse  of  cultivated  men  in  general.  Every 
one  has  observed  the  lack  of  this  at  the  present  day, 
particularly  in  our  own  country.  Between  the  Professor 
and  his  class,  it  is,  perhaps,  mainly  impracticable,  and  the 
great  advantages  of  our  modern  institutions  must  make 
compensation.  In  general  society  the  growing  infre- 
quency  of  intercourse  for  conversation  upon  elevated 
topics  appears  to  result  from  several  causes.  We  live 
in  an  age  of  feverish  activity  and  incessant  toil, 
when  all  leisure  is  apt  to  be  reckoned  loss.  New 
and  attractive  books  and  periodicals  constantly  ac- 
cumulate upon  the  table  and  engross  every  moment 
that  can  be  snatched  from  pressing  duties.  Ming- 
ling little  together,  and  with  an  ever-widening  lit- 
erature in  the  several  professions  and  in  the  various 
departments  of  knowledge,  our  better  reading  is  less 
and  less  in  the  same  direction.  Already  there  is  often 
little  common  ground  save  politics  and  general  news. 
The  whole  tendency  is  to  a  diminution  of  that  intellec- 
tual sympathy  which  ought  to  subsist  among  men  of 
cultivation,  however  diverse  their  callings.  Even  if  we 
looked  to  nothing  beyond  obtaining  valuable  informa- 
tion, surely  there  is  more  to  be  learned  from  conversation 
with  intelligent  friends  than  from  the  hurried  reading  of 
every  ephemeral  publication  which  obtrudes  itself  upon 
our  notice.  Another  cause  is,  that  a  higher  morality 
forbids  the  excesses  which  have  so  commonly  been  con- 


294  EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS. 

nected  with  the  intercourse  of  literary  men.  Certainly 
we  had  better  isolate  ourselves  completely  than  revive 
the  scenes  of  the  Greek  symposion  or  the  English  club ; 
but  it  would  be  humiliating  to  acknowledge  that  exces- 
sive animal  indulgence  is  indispensable  to  elevated 
intellectual  communion.  It  may  be  said  that  the  whole 
matter  will  regulate  itself  aright;  but  I  may  at  least 
solicit  your  reflection,  whether  some  remedy  cannot  be 
found  for  what  does  appear  to  be  an  evil. 

The  educational  history  we  have  been  surveying 
suggests  also  the  important  fact  that  true  education  is 
not  necessarily  associated  with  vast  acquirements.  The 
famous  saying  of  Macaulay  that  a  modern  school-girl 
knows  more  of  Geography  than  Strabo,  is  in  one  sense 
true,  but  in  another  and  higher  sense  it  hides  a  dan- 
gerous error ;  for  he  who  would  measure  education  must 
not  forget  that  it  has  three  dimensions,  and  be  sure  to 
take  account  of  its  depth.  There  is  hardly  any  lesson 
which  our  age  needs  to  impress  upon  itself  more  con- 
stantly than  that  thoroughness  is  not  to  be  sacrificed  to 
extensive  attainment.  We  remember,  gentlemen,  those 
of  us  particularly  who  were  deficient  in  early  advan- 
tages, the  delusive  hope  of  boyhood,  that  there  would 
come  a  time  when  we  should  have  read  all  books,  and 
become  masters  of  all  knowledge.  "We  learned  long 
ago  that  this  can  never  be ;  yet  often  one  re-awakes  to 
fresh  disappointment,  and  finds  that  he  has  been  dream- 
ing that  sweet  dream  of  childhood  still.  It  is  painful 
to  think  that  we  must  live  on  and  die,  and  leave  many  a 
wide  field  of  human  knowledge  untraversed  and  un- 
known. This  longing  to  learn  everything  is  in  itself  a 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  295 

noble  element  of  our  nature,  and  leads  to  noble  results ; 
but  it  requires  to  be  checked  by  the  stern  voice  of  duty. 
It  is  this  feeling,  combined  with  an  indolent  preference 
of  that  which  is  comparatively  easy,  that  induces  some 
persons  to  spend  their  lives  in  skimming  the  surface  of 
every  science  and  all  literature,  nowhere  pausing  for 
thorough  examination.  It  is  this  that  produces  the 
popular  admiration  of  men  who  have  the  reputation  of 
omnivorous  reading,  while  they  may  not  be,  in  any  just 
sense  of  the  term,  scholars.  And  in  no  respect  are 
its  effects  more  likely  to  be  injurious  than  upon  the 
interests  of  the  higher  education.  Students,  where  there 
is  liberty  of  choice,  are  constantly  disposed  to  attempt 
more  than  within  the  time  assigned  they  can  properly 
accomplish ;  professors  have  to  struggle  continually 
against  a  desire  to  make  their  course  uaiduly  extensive ; 
while  cultivated  and  enthusiastic  spectators,  who  have 
forgotten  their  experience  in  the  one  capacity  and  are 
perhaps  destitute  of  experience  in  the  other,  impressed 
with  the  value  of  some  branch  of  a  subject  which  is  not 
included,  call,  and  call  with  forcible  argument  and  elo- 
quent appeal,  for  enlargement.  Now,  when  it  is  urged 
that  additional  studies  shall  be  pursued  in  additional 
time,  no  lover  of  knowledge  can  fail  to  give  a  hearty 
approbation.  When  it  is  proposed  to  crowd  other  sub- 
jects into  the  same  already  crowded  space,  the  project  is 
very  questionable.  When  it  is  desired  that  we  shall 
seek  some  vague  general  benefit,  in  such  a  condition  of 
things  as  to  involve,  whether  that  be  the  intention  or 
not,  a  sacrifice  of  thorough  study,  any  such  scheme 
deserves  to  be  resisted,  firmly  and  forever. 


296  EDUCATION    IX    ATHENS. 

In  endeavoring  to  give  a  valuable  course  of  instruc- 
tion in  any  department  of  knowledge,  the  instructor 
must  always  keep  in  view  three  objects ;  and  where  the 
subject  is  unprofessional,  and  he  is  confined  within  such 
narrow  limits  as  the  present  spirit  and  customs  of  our 
people  impose,  they  ought  to  be  held,  if  I  correctly 
judge,  in  the  following  order  of  relative  importance : 
first,  to  secure  mental  training;  second,  to  awaken  a 
love  for  the  subject,  which  may  lead  the  student  to 
prosecute  it  hereafter ;  last  and  least,  to  furnish  infor- 
mation. In  teaching,  for  instance,  one  of  the  ancient 
languages,  to  those  who  cannot  yet  be  induced  to  give  to 
it  more  than  a  limited  time,  to  make  the  student  ac- 
quainted with  whatever  valuable  truths  the  literature 
of  that  language  contains,  though  very  desirable  in 
itself,  must  certainly  be  reckoned  of  inferior  import- 
ance. If  this  were  the  principal  object,  there  would 
be  much  force  in  the  argument  often  urged  against  all 
study  of  those  languages,  that  translations  would  suf- 
fice. The  question  then  is, — Which  will  accomplish 
most  in  the  way  of  mental  culture  and  in  awakening  a 
relish  for  the  classics,  to  spend  the  time  which  can  be 
commanded  in  reading  as  widely  as  possible,  though 
with  a  very  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  language  itself, 
or  to  make  an  accurate  and  philosophical  acquaintance 
with  the  language  the  primary  object — it  being  remem- 
bered that  in  order  to  this  no  small  amount  of  reading 
is  necessary,  and  that  so  much  at  least  of  the  literature 
is  read  with  a  tolerably  thorough  comprehension  and 
just  appreciation  ?  As  to  intellectual  training,  no  one 
will  question  that  the  latter  method  is  more  useful.  I 


EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS.  297 

think  it  can  easily  be  shown  that  the  same  thing  is  true 
where  some  do  question  it,  as  to  the  cultivation  of  taste. 
If  you  should  go  with  some  young  friend  to  a  gallery 
of  art,  having  but  a  comparatively  short  time  at  your 
disposal,  and  desiring  to  procure  him  the  largest  amount 
of  benefit  and  enjoyment,  your  course,  if  unreflecting 
as  the  mass  of  men,  would  probably  be  to  carry  him 
through  a  rapid  survey  of  numerous  works,  telling  him 
the  names  of  the  great  artists,  and  pointing  out  their 
most  celebrated  productions,  and  giving  him  all  the 
critical  common- places  of  would-be  connoisseurs.  Your 
friend  would  go  away  little  inclined  to  come  again,  and 
with  scarcely  anything  of  real  benefit,  but  marvellously 
prepared  to  shine  in  a  certain  kind  of  society  by  a  dis- 
play of  his  remarkable  familiarity  with  matters  of  art. 
But  if  you  select  a  considerable  number  of  the  finest 
works  and  fix  his  attention  upon  these  till  he  shall,  to 
some  extent,  drink  in  their  deep  inner  significance  and 
beauty,  he  will  turn  away,  not  imagining  that  he 
knows  much,  but  with  some  true  culture  of  taste, 
with  a  heightened  love  of  the  beautiful,  and  probably 
with  a  strong  desire  to  visit  again  the  spot  where  he 
found  so  much  of  genuine  improvement  and  serene 
delight.  Even  so,  if  we  desire  nothing  more  than  the 
ability  to  make  large  talk  concerning  even  the  most 
unfamiliar  classic  authors,  and  to  ornament  our  pages 
with  a  plentiful  sprinkling  of  classic  allusion  and  quo- 
tation, then  it  will  suffice  to  run  rapidly  over  many 
works  and  read  treatises  on  Greek  and  Roman  Litera- 
ture. But  if  we  desire  that  true  cultivation  of  taste, 
the  faculty  of  taste,  which  the  classics  are  capable  of 


298  EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS. 

affording,  we  must  study  at  least  some  works  with  such 
a  patient  attention  as  shall  at  length  issue  in  apprecia- 
tive contemplation  and  in  sympathy  with  their  peculiar 
genius.  And  let  it  not  be  objected  that  in  order  to  this 
appreciation  there  is  no  need  of  critical  study,  as  the 
great  scholars  of  two  centuries  ago  entered  most  fully 
into  the  classical  spirit,  while  they  knew  very  little  of 
what  we  call  philology.  The  objector  appears  to  forget 
that  condition  which  I  have  repeatedly  mentioned,  and 
which,  however  deplorable,  can  be  corrected  only  by 
very  slow  degrees, — the  lack  of  time.  Milton  and  the 
other  great  scholars  of  his  age  spent  a  large  portion  of 
their  lives  in  reading  Latin  and  Greek  authors,  becom- 
ing almost  as  familiar  with  those  *  languages,  particu- 
larly the  former,  as  with  English  itself.  Thus  they 
were  brought  into  sympathy  with  the  genius  of  the 
classic  languages,  precisely  as  in  the  case  of  their  native 
tongue,  by  the  gradual  effect  of  this  exceeding  famil- 
iarity. Very  similar,  though  within  narrower  limits, 
seems  to  be  the  plan  pursued  in  England  now.  By  an 
almost  exclusive  devotion  during  many  years,  their 
classical  scholars  attain  to  an  extremely  accurate  and 
familiar  knowledge  of  the  languages,  learning  to  feel 
the  force  of  their  idiom,  not  by  philosophical  examina- 
tion, but  by  an  immense  amount  of  practical  drilling. 
It  might  appear  presumptuous  to  say  that,  even  for 
them,  a  larger  infusion  of  philosophy  would  augment 
the  benefit  their  system  already  confers.  It  is  sufficient 
to  say  that,  among  us,  such  a  course  as  that  pursued  by 
Milton  or  by  the  modern  English  scholars  is  at  present 
utterly  impracticable.  If  we  would,  with  far  less  time 


EDUCATION   IN   ATHENS.  299 

at  command,  still  attain  to  the  privilege  of  communion 
with  the  very  spirit  of  classical  literature,  our  best,  if 
not  our  only  method,  is  by  critical,  philological  study. 
For  it  must  be  remembered  that  philology  includes  not 
only  the  anatomy,  but  the  physiology  of  language — not 
merely  the  study  of  etymological  formations,  to  the  be- 
ginner often  so  repulsive,  to  the  proficient  so  interest- 
ing, but  of  the  precise  significance  of  peculiar  modes  of 
expression,  with  the  exact  meaning  and  force  of  parti- 
cles, and  the  relations  of  these  to  the  inner  life  and  in- 
forming spirit  of  the  language.  Is  it  not  obvious  that 
this  affords  the  best  possible  means  of  entering  into  the 
genius  of  a  literature,  and  securing  a  genuine  culture, 
not  only  of  intellect,  but  of  taste?  *  We  are  all  agreed, 
gentlemen — let  it  be  distinctly  understood — that  it  is 
desirable  our  young  men  should  read  the  classics  far 
more  widely  than  they  have  ever  done,  and  that,  in 
order  to  this,  as  well  as  on  other  accounts,  they  should 
come  to  the  university  later,  and  remain  longer,  than  is 
their  wont.  For  the  attainment  of  such  a  result,  let  us 
exert  our  united  influence  of  every  kind  and  in  every 
place.  For  the  rest,  the  standard  of  graduation  in  this 
department  has  been  slowly  rising  with  almost  every 
year;  the  amount  of  reading  necessary  to  a  degree  is 
already  great;  we  may  expect  that  this  standard  will 
continue  to  be  elevated,  and  the  requisite  reading  to  be 
widened,  as  rapidly  as  the  time  students  can  be  induced 
to  give  will  possibly  permit.  Thus  may  they  secure 

*  The  polemical  position  here  assumed  in  defending  Dr.  Gessner 
Harrison's  methods  will  be  found  to  have  been  lomewhat  modified  in 
the  memorial  which  follows. 


300  EDUCATION   IN    ATHENS. 

the  largest  intellectual  and  sesthetical  cultivation  now, 
and  thus,  precisely  as  fast  as  our  people  shall  be  pre- 
pared for  it,  the  course  of -classical  instruction,  while 
never  ceasing  to  be  thorough,  may  be  indefinitely  ex- 
tended. Shall  not  such  a  plan,  with  all  its  valuable 
results  in  the  past  and  all  its  promise  for  the  future, 
receive  general  approbation?  Or  shall  we  ask  that  our 
young  men  may  spend  the  time  they  now  devote  to  the 
classics  in  somewhat  more  extensive  and  far  more  im- 
perfect reading,  when,  if  there  is  force  in  the  brief 
argument  we  have  considered,  the  consequence  will  be  a 
positive  diminution,  not  only  of  intellectual  improve- 
ment, but  of  that  very  aesthetical  culture  which  all  con- 
sider important,  and  which  some  reckon  paramount? 
That  is  the  practical  question  upon  which  alone,  so  far 
as  I  know,  there  is  any  difference  of  opinion ;  and  to 
the  many  among  us  who  have  some  tolerable  acquaint- 
ance with  the  subject,  the  decision  of  that  question  may 
be  cheerfully  committed. 

One  or  two  other  topics  of  remark  suggest  themselves, 
which  I  shall  only  indicate. 

The  Greeks  were  in  many  respects  pioneers  of  knowl- 
edge. Many  subjects,  particularly  of  mathematical  and 
physical  science,  which  for  us  involve  no  difficulty 
because  their  nature  has  been  fully  explained,  were 
for  them  problems  calling  forth  the  mightiest  ener- 
gies, and  demanding  the  most  protracted  application. 
Is  it  not  true  that  strength  of  mind  is  still  best 
attained,  not  by  confining  ourselves  to  those  regions  in 
which  all  difficulties  have  been  removed  by  others'  toil, 
but  by  approaching  the  boundaries  of  knowledge,  and 


EDUCATION    IN    ATHENS.  301 

striving  to  extend  its  domain  ?  It  is  sometimes  lamented 
as  a  deplorable  fatality  that  men  cannot  be  restrained 
from  laboring  still  at  questions  which  the  experience  of 
ages  appears  to  prove  to  be  insoluble.  Yet  even  though 
the  effort  should  continue  to  be  fruitless,  is  not  that 
struggling  effort  itself  a  gain,  because  producing  such 
vigor  of  intellect  as  nothing  but  pioneering  work  could 
ever  give.  It  would  be  a  fact  worth  considering,  if  it 
is  true,  that  the  unconquerable  tendency  of  which  men 
complain  is  in  reality  singularly  fortunate ;  that  where 
we  often  find  disappointment  and  despair,  there  too  we 
find  the  largest  real  benefit. 

The  thorough  education  of  the  period  we  have  been 
considering  did  not  prepare  the  Greeks  for  producing 
an  epic  poetry  which  should  rival  the  creations  of  a 
past  age.  The  greatly  improved  educational  resources 
of  subsequent  centuries  could  never  re-animate  the 
decaying  spirit  of  Grecian  literature.  There  are  influ- 
ences at  work  among  men  far  mightier  than  what  we 
call  education.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  systems  of 
instruction  to  reproduce  the  literary  types  of  a  remote 
time  or  a  distant  people.  Nor  is  this  at  all  to  be 
regretted,  where,  in  place  of  extinct  forms,  there  is  some- 
thing equally  valuable.  Why  need  the  Athenians  of 
the  age  of  Pericles  lament  that  there  was  no  new 
Homer,  when  they  had  the  immortal  dramatists?  Why 
complain,  a  few  generations  later,  that  no  other  Socrates 
or  Pericles  arose,  when  Aristotle  and  Demosthenes  were 
there?  So  with  our  own  country.  If  the  condition 
and  character  of  the  nation  have  directed  the  attention 
of  our  ablest  minds  to  politics,  is  it  nothing  that  we 


302  EDUCATION    IN   ATHENS. 

have  produced  a  political  literature  such  as  the  world 
never  witnessed  before  ? — Why  lament  that  the  mighty 
governing  forces  of  social  progress  have  appointed  our 
people  no  different  work,  if  they  have  performed  with 
unequalled  success  the  task  that  was  set  them?  Have 
we  not  reason  here  to  be  satisfied  with  what  our  father- 
<ccomplished,  and  be  hopeful  for  our  own  future  ?  A 

v  no  man  ever  forget  that  it  is  the  business  of  educa-' 
tion  merely  to  give  a  harmonious  development  and 
thorough  discipline  to  the  powers  of  the  national  mind, 
not  so  much  attempting  any  particular  bias,  as  leaving  it 
for  the  irresistible  tendencies  of  the  age  to  determine 
in  what  direction  those  powers  shall  be  exerted. 

And  now  gentlemen,  let  us  unite  in  the  desire  that 
on  this,  as  on  every  occasion  of  our  annual  assembling, 
we  may  turn  away  profoundly  impressed  with  the  duties 
we  personally  owe  to  the  cause  of  education  and  to  this 
University.  It  is  pleasant  to  see  so  many  of  our  num- 
ber in  high  places  here,  of  instruction  and  of  control. 
It  is  cheering  to  hope  that  zeal  tempered  with  prudence, 
and  the  spirit  of  progress  chastened  by  conservatism, 
are  to  render  truly  illustrious  this  dynasty  of  the 
Alumni.  But  it  is  in  the  power  of  us  all  so  to  cherish 
the  spirit  of  letters,  so  to  prove  the  value  of  the  train- 
ing here  received,  that  this  noble  Institution,  which 
made  us  proud  and  happy  in  younger  years  by  the 
bestowal  of  her  unrivalled  honors,  may,  at  least  to  some 
extent,  receive  honor  in  return  from  the  achievements 
of  our  ripened  manhood  and  our  advancing  age. 


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